Outfit of the Week

This weeks Outfit of the Week is extra special because it is currently on clearance at Mikarose!

This dress, which is listed as the "Alice" looks light and airy and fun and perfect for summer (which is probably why it's on clearance now that it's October!). It also comes in pink and (this is a big plus to me!) is machine washable!

Outfit of the Week

I've stumbled across this store before, while searching for classic, stylish modest dresses, but I made the mistake of not bookmarking the site and I just couldn't find it for the longest time. Today, however, I finally stumbled across it again and instantly recognized my favorite dress (the red dress below!).

Who says that all dresses either have to be low cut or show way too much leg? These dresses prove (to anyone who had doubts in the first place!) that it's possible to be stylish and modest at the same time!

The Audrey

The Jackie

The Brecken

Now if only the stores at the mall would realize that dresses don't have to be "barely there" to sell! "Barely there" usually isn't flattering too very many women, even when they aren't worried about dressing modestly! When will designers and store buyers realize that leaving something to the imagination is a good thing?

Outfit of the Week

After writing the last post I thought I'd do a little searching to convince myself that there are still classy, beautiful options out there. Here's the latest store that I've discovered on etsy: Linaline is based out of Tel Aviv. She has some beautiful skirts and some really comfortable looking (and beautiful) dresses.

This was the first dress that caught my eye.

My first thought when I saw this dress was that it looked comfortable and cute! It looks like something that I could chase Sadie around in and relax in during those rare moments of silence and sleep.

Outfit(s) of the Week: Too Many to Pick Just One!

While I've lately lamented how hard it is to find modest clothing in mainstream stores, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found when I was looking at the dresses on Etsy last night (while both girls were asleep at the same time! Yay!). While they aren't exactly in my price range at this point in time (another reason to expand my sewing skills) they are beautiful! And I just had to share some of my favorites with you!

from Lwangslife

from No Wonder

from Lirola

from JRoseAtelier

Maternity Outfit of the Week

While I was on the Shabby Apple website I stopped by to look at their maternity section and loved what I found. It inspired me to do a Maternity Outfit of the Week (at least for this week!).

Here it is --->

At the beginning of this pregnancy I needed to find a dress for my grandmother's funeral. Even though I was only a couple of months along I was already having trouble fitting into my regular clothes (it's amazing how much faster you show during a second pregnancy!) and thought I'd find a dress that would last through the entire pregnancy, that was comfortable enough to wear regularly but nice enough for Mass (or other formal occasions).

Some of you may remember the complaint that I had after that somewhat frustrating shopping trip. ALL of the dresses in the maternity store (and maternity sections of the department stores we stopped by) were thigh skimming. They hardly covered ANYTHING.

Now I know in Hollywood pregnant starlets might like to prance around in next to nothing while carrying around a baby the size of a small (or not so small) beach ball, but in reality I don't know many pregnant women who enjoy walking around in next to nothing. I know that I certainly don't!

I did finally find a dress (the dress that I'm wearing in the banner picture) in the Old Navy clearance section. It was actually supposed to be a cover up for the pool or beach...

So it's a relief to find a store that sells classy maternity outfits that don't look like they're about to a) fall off or b) reveal the wearers underwear. Not that I'm in the market for maternity clothes these days... in fact I've already unpacked my non-maternity dresses and stare at them wistfully each time I put clothes away in the closet... and with the help of a good post-c-section girdle/corset it shouldn't be too long before they're back in the rotation (I hope!)!

Outfit of the Week

I love Shabby Apple. I haven't actually been able to afford a dress there, but they're great for fashion inspiration! And I love this dress! It's just perfect for summer!

It's also motivating me to get my sewing machine up and running (whenever I see beautiful dresses I get motivated to learn more about sewing!). The one that I had been using at Nani's house was actually my grandmother's and I only tried using mine once (there wasn't a lot of room for it in the travel trailer so it got put away... knitting always ends up stealing my sewing time!). I set it up the other day and it was making an awful clicking sound like the needle was caught on something. I'm not sure how anything could have gone wrong with it since it's been sitting on a shelf in the garage for the past few years, but we'll have to wait and see.

Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have time to get it up and running... right now I'm very distracted by my latest rosary (two decades down, three to go). I found some beautiful freshwater pearls on super sale and I love how it's coming along! It'll be my first rosary with real pearls! And I have a wedding present that i need to get started on (and finish) pronto! So much to do before Maggie arrives!

Outfit of the Week

Sadie is asleep and there's a load of laundry in the washing machine and in the dryer, so there's not much more that I can do to get ready for the move until morning... which left me with a little time to look at vintage dresses on etsy. I stumbled across this one and it's absolutely beautiful!

It is this week's Outfit of the Week!

This shop has so many beautiful dresses!

Outfit of the Week

I have neglected my "weekly posts" this past month. But they're back!

Today's outfit is a clearance maternity shirt from JC Penny's, under a black cardigan (also from Penny's), with a black satin skirt from Express that I got for a Christmas party years ago and hardly ever wore (it never seemed to "work" with any shirts until my last pregnancy, when I realized that it looked great with almost any maternity top!).

It's also my 17 week pregnancy picture of the week!

Outfit of the Week

Today's Outfit of the Week is so comfortable (although we let Sadie wear her pajamas to the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass so she may have been a little more comfortable than I was!). It's pretty simple: my favorite red skirt, a turtle neck, a black sweater dress and a green scarf that we picked up when we were in Palestine. It was modest and toasty warm!

Outfit of the Week

Here's my Outfit of the Week! And it's still in one piece! Sadie and I were headed down the stairs yesterday when we took a rather dramatic fall... and while I'm a little bruised and sore today, we're both okay (and hoping that today will be filled with fewer disasters...).

I think this may become one of my favorite outfits (although the shirt isn't going to last for much longer as my waistline continues to expand. I'll have to drag it back out next year when my waist is hopefully, shrinking again.). I'm just about ready to go dig through the garage to find my maternity clothes from last time around.

The skirt was a one dollar garage sale find (with the tags still on it!) that is definitely a favorite. The sweater is probably the most expensive part of my wardrobe and was a gift from my maid-of-honor before we got married (I can't believe it's 4 years old). It's from Express (which was one of my favorite stores in college, although it's way outside my price range these days). And the shirt was from one of those cheap, trashy mall stores (also during college) and it most definitely needs a tank top under it (the camisole is one of the ones that came in a package from Costco).

And of course, since Paul has banned my brown high heeled boots for the rest of this pregnancy as a result of the fall I switched them out for the gold princess ballet flats. A new favorite: this weeks Outfit of the Week!

Outfit of the Week

Today's Outfit of the Week pictures are from the first trimester of my last pregnancy (I think I'm even the same week along). Unfortunately after being washed, over and over the sweater has somehow shrunk! It's actually just the arms that are too tight, but I'm sure I can find another purpose for it.

This time along I'm showing much more quickly (I'd read that happens). The last few days I've been eating and eating because I'm losing weight and I don't want to be told by the doctor that I have to wean Sadie. So I at least have to hold steady until I really start gaining. But this part (working to gain weight) is certainly more fun than what I'll be working on in a year, which is losing the baby weight.

Outfit of the Week

I did it again and forgot to post the Outfit of the Week for last week yesterday!

The picture on the left is also my nine week pregnancy picture! Only 31 more to go!

Paul says that this outfit reminds him of something out of the late 80's. I asked him if that was an insult and he said that late 80's is better than early or mid-eighties. Since I was still wearing pink my little pony high tops during the late 80's, I'm not sure whether or not to believe him. I should point out that there are no should pads in this top.

There are actually a dress and a skirt that make up the base for this outfit. The top (which is the glimpse of red you can barely see) is supposed to be a "dress." As a dress it is one of the least flattering things I have ever seen. It has all the shape of a sack of potatoes with an elastic band at the bottom. However, if you fold it over on itself and wear it as a shirt, it stays in place and is actually pretty cute (not at all potato sack-y).

The skirt is a shiny, holiday piece that I bought right after I met Paul, but that I hardly wore until I was pregnant with Sadie. It's kind of flouncy and I could never find anything that I liked that went with it until I started pairing it with maternity tops (which the top/dress actually isn't).

I borrowed my Mom's sweater so that I wouldn't freeze, although that ended up being hopeless because it was cold in our parish this morning. Those single paned windows just don't keep the cold out when it's 20 degrees outside, even if the heater has been blasting all morning.

The hat that I grabbed on my way out the door is Sadie's, although she refuses to wear it and throws it off every chance that she gets. When she noticed it on my head five minutes before Mass started, she was furious. She was already in a bit of a mood (we realized halfway through Mass that she has a new tooth that is halfway through to top off the ear ache) and she spent a few seconds trying to yank it off my head before moving on to her next complaint.

And of course I added the tights for warmth, which were paired with gold ballet flats that were off before Paul took this picture, finish off this week's Outfit of the Week.

Outfit of the Week

And it's only one day late! Presenting last weeks Outfit of the Week!

I couldn't help myself when I saw this dress! It isn't quite my mother's family's tartan (Robertson) but it was close enough that it reminded me of the beautiful, if very itchy, wool dress that I wore when I was little. I couldn't find my black sweater before I left the house (I was running late!) and the sleeves are a little too slender for my taste (and the skirt is quite literally floor length, which made me trip several times going up stairs!) but I love the dress enough that I overlooked these little flaws and got it a few weeks ago. It is my Christmas splurge (which I guess isn't bad considering that it was something like $24 at Target). It could have been much, much worse! And it's loose enough that it ought to work for a good portion of my pregnancy! I can't ask for more than that!

Sadie's dress, on the other hand, was a bit longer when we started out our day, but she managed to completely destroy the lace, built in slip and so I finally tore it out of the dress (at least it tore straight across, perfectly) so that she wouldn't trip on it a twentieth time. In this picture she is exhausted from watching dancing penguins, a belly dancing hippo and a ballerina elephant (and an actual real horse). With five minutes left in the two hour Christmas show she passed out on my lap and had a ten minute nap before we had to clear out of the theater! What a day!

Outfit of the Week

This weeks Outfit of the Week comes a day late because the battery in my camera was dead and Sadie went into a full out fuss when she thought I was going to put her down to try and find the charger (it was right around bedtime). Putting this outfit together last week showed me that finding appropriate clothing for a memorial service isn't all that easy sometimes.

The challenge was pretty typical. Every dress that I found was either too short or too low cut (or strapless). I finally compromised and layered (that always seems to be the solution these days). I found a cable knit sweater "dress" at Old Navy and fell in love. It wasn't long enough to wear as a dress (in my humble opinion) but I began searching for the second half of my outfit. I found it in the clearance section. A long, strapless black sport knit dress left over from summer. I tried on the small (they only had a small and a XL) and amazingly it fit perfectly (I am not a small these days, for the record). I put the dress over it and was perfectly covered. My black snood didn't make it in time, but I did put in the order at the last minute. Hopefully it will arrive soon.

I was a little surprised to see pretty much everyone at the Memorial Service for my grandmother dressed like they were going to a picnic. It was on a boat, so I expected people to be bundled up (I wore tights and a jacket and was a little too warm once the sea sickness set in) but I didn't expect such casual attire (and my immediate family was the one who handled the plans so I know there weren't instructions to "dress casually"). I believe it was even more casual than the status quo at most Masses these days. Maybe I'm just old fashioned (okay, I know, I am) but I find that odd. And I was the ONLY person who wore black (my immediate family wore dark grey and Paul wore black pants, but everyone else was colorful, again, like they were going to a picnic). It's just strange to me!

Outfit of the Week

Here is today's outfit of the week! I've begun going through my holiday clothes, although now that I'm expecting I'm not sure how many will actually fit once December rolls around. This skirt will, although it'll fit higher around my waist as we near the second trimester.

Sadie should still fit into the dress she's wearing in this picture this year too. It's a 2t and she still fits into most of her 2t's.

However I fear my favorite red dress is already going to be a bit snug and looks like it will be "resting" for another December. Ah well, maybe next year.

Outfit of the Week

In honor of this weeks big announcement, I have an chosen an outfit that will soon be coming out of retirement. Looking at this picture it's hard to believe that I still had ten weeks left before Sadie was born! I have to say, I wouldn't mind if this baby was a bit smaller than 9 lbs 4 oz. In fact, I'd be totally fine with say, 7 lbs 2 oz. In fact, I'd be ecstatic!

Of course, I can't complain. Paul is a twin and he and his brother weighed a whopping 15 lbs together! Now that would be seriously tough!

Outfit of the Week

It's Saturday again, and that means it's time for another Outfit of the Week. This dress is from Target and it is one of my favorites. It's long, it stays in place and it usually doesn't have static cling issues, although there was an incident last week, but I think the problem was with the socks I was wearing, not the dress. I must say that severe static cling around just your ankles can make any dress look absolutely ridiculous!

Nap time has just ended, so it's time to get my little angel dressed in her little angel costume!

Outfit of the Week

I can't believe that this outfit hasn't already been a Outfit of the Week! I guess it's because I started the Outfit of the Week series in summer, so I was considering more summer dresses. However this skirt-sweater combo is one of my favorites.

My best friend gave me the sweater right before I got married (she saw me eyeing it in the store, but resisting buying it because Express was already outside our budget possibilities) and the skirt is from JCPennys (fall 2007).

The outfit is shown on the right with my favorite (and at the time brand new) headcovering scarf at the Pater Noster Church in Jerusalem. The picture on the left is on a hot day while touring Caesarea earlier in the trip. It was definitely appropriate for traveling in the Holy Land.

Outfit of the Week

Today's Outfit of the Week is one of my favorites for this time of year and I can't find it anywhere! This picture is of the one of the last times that I wore it (pre-pregnancy). A few months later I found out that I was expecting and I carefully packed it away along with quite a few other dresses. We put it down under my parents' house and now I can't find it anywhere.

The entire box of dresses has disappeared!

I am determined to find it. It has to be down there somewhere. Most of the dresses probably won't fit anymore, but a few might!

Goal for next week: find this dress!

Outfit of the Week

This week's Outfit of the Week was perfect for the fund-raising Sock Hop held last night at our parish hall. I wish I could find more dresses with skirts with this cut these days. I really need to focus on learning to sew. I've decided to put aside the dress I started for myself and work on Sadie sized dresses! If I make major mistakes at least it won't cost me 6 yards of material.