Loretta's street style c/o Petit Fashion

This girl of mine.

She is a fun one to dress and has such strong personal style. Very girly and very loud and a little bit tomboy rolled all into one.

Loretta's adorable outfit is c/o Petit Fashion (thank you - we love love love it!) and includes the sweetest Catimini scarf that I am tempted to steal except it's perfectly pint-sized. Tee & cuffed red velour shorts by Lili Gaufrette.

UK-based Petit Fashion carries European tops, bottoms, dresses, shoes, and accessories for babies, girls, and boys. They ship internationally and have so many items I've only seen on Pinterest including these little Mini Melissa rhino rainboots I would snatch up in a second if my kids' feet were still than teeny. xo

♥ kate quinn organics semi-annual $10 sale ♥

Kate Quinn Organics is one of my all-time favorite brands for kiddo clothing and for good reason. Their tops, bottoms, jammies, and dresses are adorable, organic, soft, and hold up wonderfully in the wash. We love them, yes we do! And they are currently having their semi-annual $10 sale.

I don't know about you but I will be stocking up for Loretta who is growing like a freaking weed lately (girlfriend has broad shoulders and is almost in a 3T top, but she has narrow hips like her brother and still wears 18-24MO bottoms, so funny). I've found that Kate Quinn items are true to size, their bottoms are nicely long and their tops just roomy enough. I always buy 1 size too big regardless so we get a little extra life out of each piece. Anyways, have fun at the sale!

*this post sponsored by Kate Quinn Organics, the opinions are my own.

Kate Quinn Organics Friends & Family Sale

Heads up that its sale time at Kate Quinn Organics and its Plum Bunny and Violet + Moss brands. This brand is my valentine; I really love them. They have eye-catching big, bold prints; hip but not hipster kids style; and soft quality organic cotton. Right now everything (except the essentials collection) is 50% off until August 28.

Etta's green Kate Quinn jacket from last fall is still a favorite.

To shop the Friends and Family Sale visit http://www.katequinnorganics.com/ and use the code "ff2013" at checkout.

*this post sponsored by Kate Quinn Organics, the opinions are my own.

terms of endearment style

I don't do this often, but thought I would do a "working with some small amount of style" post. For the past month-ish I've been making it a point to eat smart, exercising when I can (meaning I've done jumping jacks like twenty times and planked once for a whole minute), and organizing my shiz. I feel like 2012 had me in a very overwhelmed and not-feeling-together place. 2013 is for taking charge! And part of that, at least for me, means feeling like "myself" again in my clothes. Loretta will be one in March, I can't wear maternity sweats, eat doughnuts, and not shower much longer... It was smelly and sugary while it lasted! So, I've lost 6 pounds so far and can do 120 jumping jacks in a ROW! You can shoot nerf rockets at me and call me Chyna Diamond Blaze because I will dodge those nerf rockets and knock you down with a jumping jack to the throat! Umm, anyways, so here's what I wore to work on Friday: casual, warm, and colorblocked to the max.

I have no idea what I'm looking at in these pictures. There was no bird or plane. No one ever taught me how to model, womp womp. And even though I am clearly wearing leggings, and despite the fact that I recently called pants garbage because I was angry with them (as a category) for looking SO BAD on me... I am secretly pretty sick of the whole skinny jean movement and ready to find my style in a way that feels at home to me. My style icon of all time is Debra Winger (in Terms of Endearment yes, but also just Debra in general in her golden era when she owned Hollywood as the pretty, sexy, strong, tomboy). How I would love to add some of these pieces to my closet... because PANTS. I am ready to get back into pants. Wide legged, glorious PANTS!

Image via Pinterest and Polyvore.

As I get older (and dudes, I'm turning 35 this year so yeah, THAT) I realize that my style is very basic and comfortable, but pretty I think. I like wool and cotton, earthy colors, and feminine touches. I'm short but I still love flats. I don't like jewelry but lately I've started romancing the idea of finding a fancy antique man's Rolex at the thrift store (unlikely I know). And I can't wait for my hair to grow out.

Who are your fashion icons? Do you find yourself moving more and more towards a certain "look" that's timeless as you grow older or do you evolve with the changing trends? I suppose we're all a little combination of both. I'm doing this "nothing new" challenge this year, not buying anything new (but used is fine) so I'm hoping to find some items at the thrift store that will help me as I try to move my "look" more towards my ideal. Hopefully some classy lady of the early 80s realizes she's outgrown her fine collection of petite trousers, wingtip loafers, blanket sweaters, and mens Rolexes!

And Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to all. I hope you are spending the day with the ones you love and that it's sunny and warmish for you. Anyone else ready for a picnic day? I'm OVER the cold! Over it! Done.

Life Style {mix and match Otto}

Thanks to all of you who were cool enough to link up to these Life Style posts the past few weeks! I'm changing the format of these posts to remove the linky going forward but only because I had to make a decision if I was going to pay for a subscription to the Linky service (I was using a month free trial) and since there were only a handful of linkers each week I couldn't justify the expense. Maybe someday I'll try again but for now we're kickin it old school.

Otto's style is something that's very precious to me even especially as it becomes less and less my-style-for-him and more and more just his own jam. His 4th birthday is coming up in just a few weeks (I'm not even going to talk about that) and he's really come into his own when it comes to what clothes he will wear and how he will wear them (answer: he will wear them like-a-crazy-awesome). I still have the final say on most of what's in his closet. I have appointed myself the licensed character gatekeeper and try SUPER hard to keep that stuff firmly in the land of pajamas. Otto would wear obnoxious characters splashed across every square inch of his body, 24/7, if I let him. But outside of controlling the options, we pretty much let Otto wear whatever he wants. He is so awesome.

Otto's Fall 2012 look book, hee hee. Our go-to outfit this season is a warm hat, a tee, a sweat shirt, comfy pants, and more often than not some fingerless gloves. Captain puts stickers on the tops of his sneakers which I think is pretty neat. He loves accessories like whoa and comfy pants are a big priority. Sometimes I try to put him in hip little jeans his Nana sent and he'll test the fabric between his fingers and look at me all judgey and say, "I don't know. These don't seem very comfy?" As if I'm trying to pull something. Sweat pants it is. Every. Single. Day. Luckily I found some really cute ones on Zulily recently for pennies on the dollar.

I am an emo mom who loves to travel down memory lane and be all weepy so I thought I'd show Otto's style evolution. Here he is this time last year when he'd just turned 3 ♥

And two years ago ♥

And three years ago ♥

Look at me with that dapper little gent! He was such a munch. Loretta wears that little red sweater now. ps. Guys I want my hair back. That is all. And then let's just go ahead and go there. Four years ago ♥ 

Stream of consciousness moment --> You guys. OMG you guys. It flies doesn't it? How do I have a four year old? Every day they change just a teeny little bit and most days you don't even notice it and then suddenly you have this person who is sounding out words and coloring in the lines and won't wear uncomfy jeans and sneakily asks his dad for a candy cane while you're in the shower because you already said no but then interrupts your shower to wash the candy cane off his sticky little grub hands because these little ones have no shame! This awesome evolving person. It's nuts.

And that is how this week's style post spun out of control. Brought to you by Bailey's in her 4am coffee. Tomorrow we'll talk about Loretta turning 9 months old, having 5 teeth, and standing. Jiminy Freaking Christmas. 

Life Style | Link Up | featuring an office fashion show

Today's Life Style post was inspired by a trip that we went on this morning to one of the best places on the planet, Target. Me and the munchkins were on the hunt for two different kids' birthday presents and we ended up in my and Otto's favorite section to spend a nice half hour loitering - the books. I saw that little I Can Do It Myself book on the top/left there and fell in love with its sweet style. We picked some other books and workbooks more age appropriate to the kids we were shopping for but I came home inspired and during the kiddos' naps (bless their hearts they even napped at the same time today) I decided to scout all of my favorite online shops to share with you some truly charming kids books that are oozing style and also (timely!) would make great gifts this holiday season.

Even though I spotted I Can Do It Myself in-store at Target, I couldn't find it on their website but I did find it at Barnes & Noble as well as The Gruffalo which is supposed to be, just great. Q&A A Day for Kids is from Anthropologie; did you know they always carry great kids gifts at the holidays? Well they do! This little book asks an interview question like "describe the perfect secret hideout" every day for a year, but is laid out for three years worth of answers so that you can record the answers and then page through and see how your child's response varies year-to-year as they grow. I love this so much I couldn't resist and nabbed one! You can find the whole series of Moomin books, comic book style graphic novels full of humor and adventure, at Henri & Flora. If you are, or are shopping for, a collector of vintage children's books then look to Etsy for gems like Playtime Poodles that I found at Becca's Best Finds' shop. This little knit crown from Miniluu would be the perfect gift alone or tied up in a bundle with Where the Wild Things Are. And then at Land of Nod there are so many great titles including Not a Box which encourages imaginative thinking and Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls which is a cute little reproduction of the 1957 book.

The links are just for your convenience, non are affiliate links or anything interesting.

Life Style is a weekly feature I started last week. Each week I will also feature one person who participated in the previous week's link-up as well, and that person will get to choose who will be featured the following week. Last week Randalin from Harvesting Kale and her adorable son, Kale, were featured. Randalin chose this week's featured from everyone who linked up.

This week's featured lady is the lovely Katherine from Somewhere in the Middle (selected images via this post link). Katherine has been doing a no-repeat-outfit challenge at work. I would fail at that pretty quickly! But Katherine rocks it. You guys might remember that Katherine and I have crossed paths before; we live about 30 minutes from each other and get the kids together for playdates now and then and more importantly we eat burritos together. We are Burrito Amigos.

Clear the way! Hot mama comin' through! Even though she accidentally put on the wrong team's tee shirt on that third day. Forgivable. Thank you for being my feature this week, Katherine!

Ok guys... Now it's your turn! You can link up below to your recent style-related posts or style-related instagram pics. Katherine will choose one person from this week's links to be next week's "life style" feature. Yip!

Life Style | Link Up | featuring a dapper young fellow

So much style happening over here I can hardly breath. Except no. I totally wore the same outfit from Wednesday night through to yesterday afternoon and that was a long tshirt, maternity sweatpants, and a striped sweater (the same one I was wearing in last week's Life Style post). Maternity sweats when you aren't pregnant ftw! So that was the outfit of steel, 3 days strong, including showers... I just switched knickers (points for making underwear sound charming?) but I never wanted to stop wearing those snugly clothes. Thanksgiving and its 4-day weekend has been just what the doctor ordered. Lots of mellowing out with the kids, eating leftovers, taking walks in the rain, and even grownups taking naps! Friday afternoon we decided to decorate for Christmas except this year we voted against a real tree because Loretta puts every little crumb, dirt clod, dust bunny, and anything else thank you, into her mouth so we figured pine needles were not something we wanted to introduce into our space. Our little $20 tree from Target is about the flimsiest thing that ever happened so between only hanging large ornaments that won't double as choking hazards and only hanging ultra-light ornaments that won't bend the tree we have about 8 ornaments on the tree. Plus the lights on the tree that seemed like such an amazing after-holiday deal last year we realized were super cheap because they are for a flocked tree, so the chord is white, which means it stands out like crazy on a green tree.

In other words our tree is a hot mess.

Highlights: Loretta's little pinafore is from the local shop Whispering Willows: they have a booth at our farmers market which is where Nana went shopping and also an Etsy shop. On the tree... Every year since 1998 we have picked out one new ornament and this year two (one for each kiddo). This tradition ensures that when I hang up ornaments each year I turn into a sobbing, blubbering pool of sappy nostalgia tears and Christmas memories. This year hers is the winter elephant and his is the sparkly penguin. I wrote the year on them in sharpie. Lastly, we added this string install just this week where we can hang up Otto's art from school to display. I'm sure I got this idea from Pinterest but I don't know where or how. It was probably done in a more fancy way but we just tied craft twine to a couple of nails and hung the pictures with white paperclips. Total cost $3 and all supplies from Target. 

Life Style is a weekly feature I started last week. Each week I will also feature one person who participated in the previous week's link-up as well, and that person will get to choose who will be featured the following week. Last week Annie and her beautiful boys bedrooms were featured. Annie chose this week's featured from everyone who linked up.

This week's featured lady is the lovely Randalin from Harvesting Kale (selected images via this post link). Hers is one of my favorite blogs to read and I highly suggest you check her out. She is a fellow working mama and her adorable son, Kale, attends a Montessori school (as does my Otto) so I relate to her in many ways. She also likes educational crafts and projects, but really likes the ones that require little artistic ability. It's like we were separated at birth. And she dresses her little man with alllllll kinds of charm.

Can we just take a moment to admire those elbow patches and then another moment for yellow pants. Kale, you are a doll. Thank you for being my feature this week, Randalin!

Ok guys... Now it's your turn! I hope you participate, hurray! You can link up below to your recent style-related posts or style-related instagram pics. Randalin will choose one person from this week's links to be next week's "life style" feature. Yip!

Life Style | featuring beautiful boys rooms

Hey guys ♥!♥!♥! I'm starting a weekly feature and it's all about real life style. I really hope to get to know you guys a little bit better and to share some of our family "life style" with you. I know I LOVE it whenever I get to see what you are wearing (like please make a line and hand over all of your infinity scarves), how you dress your kids (please hand over your childsized Boggs), or decorate your house, car, or whatever thing you've decorated you weirdo who decorates your car (I secretly think it's cool if you decorate your car). Anyways, this isn't about being ultra fashionistas, at least not for us, more like, "this week was all about my favorite shlubby tshirt that I wore, oh, 3 days in a row this week." And each week I will also feature one person who participated in the previous week's link-up as well, and that person will get to choose who will be featured the following week. It sounds complicated but it really isn't, and hopefully it will be a big circle of style inspiration for everyone involved.

So, at my house, this week was all about snuggly fall clothes... I've been told I keep my house too cold (heat is costy, yo) so we all wear sweaters. 

Highlights: Otto's sweet shoes are vintage GASS that we thrifted in a moment of pure thrifting awesomeness. Loretta's leggings are Broken Tricycle and her little hand-embroidered felt moccasins were a gift from Katherine's mom and every time I see them I die because they are THAT cute.

ps. Loretta has 3 teeth and sits now, so what the heck? What the heck?!

This week's featured lady is my great friend, Annie, who has put together two amazing boys rooms for her sons. I love Annie's style and her art (that you can see on the walls) and her heart which is pure gold. She has the double dream job of being a stay at home mom and a copywriter for Anthropologie and Bhldn. I have always loved her style because it has a touch of magic as you'll see. You can find her on instagram here.

So much greatness! Thank you for being my first feature, Annie! I love you. Seriously, ma'am. Love.

Ok guys... Now it's your turn! I hope you participate, hurray! You can link up below to your recent style-related posts or style-related instagram pics. Annie will choose one person from this week's links to be next week's "life style" feature. Yip!