I am not well versed on the school calendar. There are days off that come off as a surprise, until maybe the week before, despite the school sending me the calendar the year prior. Hopefully, enriching activities occur on these days, but a lot of my poor planning must encompass the mundane. We are currently having one of those days, and have zero bread in the house, but an entire stick of Trader Joe’s butter with brown sugar and maple. Clearly, we have an issue.
My youngest was born with the shopping gene. I have celebrated this over the years, but lately we have butt heads over the duration of time spent in the toy aisles. I feel that our relationship is stronger when clear boundaries are set ahead of our shopping trips. This was our conversation today:
Me: I need to get bread at Target.
Tiny: I want to come with you.
Me: I am not going to the toy aisles.
Tiny: I am out of Nerf bullets.
Me: Ok, but you need to bring your own money for them. We can get bread and Nerf bullets, but that is it.
Tiny: The Christmas decorations are out.
Me: Ok, bread, Nerf bullets and the Christmas aisle. If you argue when we get there, I can’t take you anymore.
I brushed my teeth, thought hair brushing was unnecessary based on my knowledge of how uncrowded it usually is at 9 am, and got dressed. I wore an exercise bra to remind myself of my daily goals, noticed a small stain on my tee and set a mental note to check the white tee options to replace, and Tiny and I set off.
Oh my, Target has been hit with their daily/weekly/seasonal delivery and it was beautiful to my eyes. The white tee aisle had been the inspiration for my cart direction, but it no longer mattered when the holiday selection hit my eyeballs. I had used my most sanctimonious, motherly righteousness tone of voice with my child before we left, and I was instantly reminded of what it felt like to hit the toy aisle. After 30 minutes and a chunk of time spent on the dressing room bench, my child asked me if I remembered we needed bread. I had, but I needed to look at more aisles.
Target is running 30% off through Saturday on apparel, not including athletic wear. I firmly believe in a wardrobe of good mix and match basic pieces, so how could I not add a chartreuse, satin, tulip dress into the daily mix at 30% off? I couldn’t and a little eye rolling from my husband challenged me to make multiple use options out of it. I told my husband I could wear this to a party, church/brunch/art galleries-that-I-don’t attend-but-might-someday, and work. For reference, I live in LA, and we don’t wear suits. I can pull from my every day and make this happen. Also, there are fantastic pieces aside from my chartreuse lovely. Here is how to spend $150 and get a good wardrobe bang for your buck. Choose one dress, one top, the leggings, one sweatshirt and the shoes and your grand subtotal should be around $130. These are options to add some sparkle and movement to your wardrobe.
Here she is. She is beautiful and so high style for a mere $26.60. She has a touch of sexy with the corset style bodice, but so demure and playful with the tulip midi skirt. For reference, Target calls this color yellow, but I see chartreuse. Tomato, tomahto.
I love a thin black turtleneck as a building block, and used it here. It accents the corset bodice for femininity without the sexy, and black tights continue to support the dress as the exhibition piece.
I would also wear this to work with a crisp poplin button down shirt, navy or burgundy tights (with the opposite color heel) and top it with a cropped denim jacket. Embrace the opposites! Wear it. How often can you rock chartreuse? Is it scary? We are basically in the Christmas season; channel the merry.
The shape doesn’t work for you, but you can’t live without chartreuse? Here you go. The slip silhouette is in fashion right now and you can wear a regular bra with this one. Look at the lace sleeve!! Thank goodness for my short torso, or I would have had to buy both dresses. Please dress it down with a moto boot. Are you chilly? Put a black, oversized cardigan with the boots. Opposites attract.
Sometimes you just don’t want to think about the minutia. If I have to pack for work, packing jewelry ahead of time just frustrates me. What if I change my mind? What if it’s too early to deal and I’m already cranky about being awake and don’t want to wear jewelry? These. Just these. You have button down options for work into holiday party wear, and I am here for it. My favorite part is the button option; choose traditional or asymmetrical. The fabrication is crisp, and the bling is on the front only, so don’t worry about scraping your car seat or spending the day irritated with small beads rubbing uncomfortably every time you lean into your chair. No jewelry necessary with these tops.
Recently, I finished a good and fulfilling work trip. The subtitle to this means that I had errands to run once home. While I like to dress for the day, I have found that if I wear workout clothing, I am 4000% more likely to exercise. (It’s scientific.) I dressed in my Lululemon Align leggings (pretty much the only ones I’ve worn for the last 3 years) and hit every place in town. I came home and Tiny 1 said he could see my butt. What??? This isn’t the first time either. I SQUATTED IN COSTCO IN THESE!!! Ugh.
Enter the every day soft leggings at Target. They feel the same, launder the same and are $25. Lululemon has officially lost my business.
I think a cropped and kind of oversized sweatshirt is flattering with workout leggings, and sets are a thing right now. I’m not so concerned about the set factor, but I like to wear my giant headphones in and out of the gym, and the quarter zip allows me to do this without getting stuck in the sweatshirt while taking them on and off. Both of these are a dupe for major labels, but only $25-30.
This shoe is on sale for $21! I love everything about it. Here is what you wear with the tulip dress from above. Perfect, perfect, perfect! The shape is gorgeous, the heel is practical and the nude with sparkle is screaming to also be worn with a barrel jean and one of the above button down shirts. Just get it–in a size smaller than you usually wear.
We made it home from Target with the bread, Nerf bullets, Christmas wrapping paper, my new dress and several other grocery items. I was excited to steam and try my dress on, and my tiny one was excited to sneak up on his brother. (The toy and bullets were confiscated within the hour.) We rode bikes and I flinched playing catch with a football with my not so tiny 1st born. My neighbor told me to stop throwing it like a baseball, which I can’t. We ended the day watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and I realized that the mundane was a great day. When they went off to bed, I had to grab my little computer to share all the wonderful things I found in my Target toy aisle.
he brought me ice cream's Blog 
