Lesson #150,152-What's A Mom To Wear??

Okay, So what is a Mom to wear?  Now, we can all get tips on what NOT to wear when we go to Walmart.  Just sit on a bench near the checkout and you will be amazed at what people wear in that place.  Hopefully, we all know that pajamas and fuzzy slippers are not appropriate for leaving the house and going shopping.  Okay, you can wear them if you go to Walmart but if you are going to Target or the grocery store, please leave the Hello Kitty pjs on the floor in your bedroom. 

Moms are constantly being picked on about Mom jeans and yoga pants.  If it were up to me, I would live in my yoga pants and my favorite long sleeved tee shirts.  My high fashion consists of Guy Harvey and Vineyard Vines Tees.  My "Mom Jeans" are from American Eagle, $30, and they don't look like Mom Jeans.  My favorite shoes are my 5 year old, well-worn Sperry topsiders.  I look at some Moms in carpool line and they usually look much like I do.  Some have played tennis and have their tight shorts on and their butts look amazing. Some have taught exercise classes all day and they look amazing in their yoga pants.  Some Moms have just left court and have been litigating cases all day and they look great!! Some Moms are in their yoga pants and a side pony and rock it.  Let me clear one thing up.  My yoga pants have never been to yoga.  I just love them!! Now, I do Pilates and dance in them. (Dance=until this pro/am dance competition is over and then I will be back to Pilates only!!)  Some Moms just look like a hot mess.  Usually I am one of them.  I am going to work on this.

Okay, so what are we supposed to wear without being judged?  I refuse to dress up to go to carpool, the grocery store and Target.  I watch reality TV and see these ladies on "The Real Housewives of..." all around town in cocktail dresses, full makeup, eyelashes and hair curled.  Not a ball cap in sight!!  Let's settle on something comfortable.  I am, by no means, someone to be giving out style advice but maybe I can help moms spruce up their wardrobes with a few simple tips.  Again, just to be clear, we don't need to wear heels and be uncomfortable to look good.  We can wear a solid colored tee with an inexpensive thin cardigan (from Gap Outlet) over it to look a little nicer than just the tee.  A white tee and a white collared shirt are your best friends.  Everyone looks great in a crisp white collared shirt, no matter what size you are!! You can throw a scarf around your neck if there is a chill in the air and look great. Something like this:

Or this:


In the summer, we can wear things like this:

Or this:

I am short so I don't have some of the options that some of my tall readers have so here are a few tips for us "Shorties".  "Petite" women should never wear long skirts.  It makes us look 6 inches shorter.  We should not wear Bermuda shorts.  We should not wear bell bottomed jeans, no matter what real stylists tell us!!  Some of us petite girls are told not to wear Capri pants.  I disagree a little bit.  If they are longer capris, they don't look good on us.  If they are calf length capris, those are fine.  Shorter shorts make our legs look longer!!  We can create that illusion of being tall, even though we are not.  I can't wear long dresses or skirts.  Tall girls can rock those cute Maxi dresses.  We cannot!!  Y'all tall girls, just go on with your bad selves!!  Us short girls will be in our short skirts and dresses. 

We don't have to "dress up" to look nice.  Invest in a nice belt.  I bought a belt from Gap years ago that I only paid $30 for and I wear that thing all the time.  A nice leather belt will usually set you back over $80 but if you think about it, you will wear it with nearly everything from shorts, jeans, capris or even over a cute dress.  Spend a little money on your belt and get a good one.  You can buy less expensive sandals at TJ Maxx or Target to set off your look.

Now, even though I am short, I hate wearing heels unless I am at an event or church.  It isn't practical to wear heels when you are a mother who works at home.  Chasing around children in 6 inch heels is impossible.  Plus, wearing them to the soccer field will ruin the heels!!  Save your heels for church, charity events or maybe even date night!!

Buy some inexpensive jewelry from a downtown boutique or even a vintage store.  Some of the jewelry that my mother wore in the 70's is still in style now.  Layer small bracelets or a silver cuff to dress up an outfit.  Most moms can't afford real gold earrings so just be sure to buy "gold" earrings with sterling posts.  That will make you look great without the expensive price tag.  As the saying goes, fake it 'til you make it!! You don't need a string of $5,000 pearls.  You can get the $20 string and nobody will know the difference.  Here in the South, a string of pearls is an essential part of your jewelry box.  You can raid your mother's jewelry box and find a string.  If they need restringing, you can buy a cheap skinny ribbon and restring them yourself and tie a bow at the end.  Restring them in any color ribbon to go with any outfit.  Simply tie a small knot in the end and roll them onto the next color of ribbon.  Easy!! Also, friends can help with jewelry.  Trade a few necklaces and earring for a month and make a new style!!  Borrowing and trading can be fun!!

Okay, so I hope this helps.  Now, don't judge me if you see me in carpool line with my ball cap on and NO PEARLS!!!  Much love to all of you Moms who work so hard every day!! Your work can often be overlooked unless it is not done.

Life Lesson #15,039-Psychology of Women

Life Lesson #15,039-Psychology of Women

My son just asked me what a woman means when she says, "This dress isn't me."?  I said that it means that she doesn't like the dress for her but it might look good on someone else.  He said that when he gets to college he is going to take a course on women and I told him it is a thirty year course and he would fail anyway. LOL!  Poor kid.  He's only 13-years old and he is already trying to figure out women.  Good luck with that, my son!!  Why are women so hard to figure out?  Why don't we just say what we mean like men do?  Why do we hold grudges from the 3rd grade?  Why do we care about how soft our skin is?  Why do we worry about age spots?  Why do we care about gray hair and wrinkles?  Why do we have more than 4 pairs of shoes?  Why do we have a section in our closet called our "fat clothes"?  Why do we wear make up and fuss with our hair?  Why do we touch up our lipstick every hour?  Why do we fret over an extra 10 pounds? Why do we shove ourselves into Spanx?  Why do we always have to smell good?  Why do we love pretty things?  Why do we always say, "Oh that's so cute!"?   I tell you why.  Because we are women!!!


Why do we cry about everything?  When we are happy.  When we are sad.  When we are watching Chick Flicks.  When we are watching Magic Mike.  ((Ahem. Sorry.))  Then for no reason at all, we cry!!  We love to know details about everything.  It may take us 5 minutes to tell a story that would take a man 10 seconds to tell because we don't leave out any details.  We all absolutely hate drama but we want to know if any drama is going on and we will give our opinion but we don't want to get involved in the drama.  We get mad if someone knows what is going on and they don't share it with us. We get our feelings hurt easily.  We are sensitive. Why??  Because we are women.



One thing is for sure about women.  We love with all of our heart. If we are moms we will rip your still beating heart straight out of your chest if you hurt our child.  When we love something we will fight for it to the death!   Whether it is a relationship or a child, our love knows no boundaries.  Some men like to call us stalkers but really it's just love.  If they would just love us back, darn it!!!!  I mean my goodness, we smell good and our hair is fixed.  What more could you possibly want from us?  Just because we send you roses, chocolates and 471 texts per day, does not make us stalkers.  Just because we wait for you outside of your apartment building at 5am to give you a warm cup of coffee to start off your day right, does not make us stalkers.  And yes, buying him that really nice gold watch that he always wanted may have been a little excessive but stalking...No way, Your Honor!!  We just like to show our love, Your Honor!! Why?  Because we are women!!





So we love cute things and flowers. Earrings and purses. We love bubble baths and pedicures.  We love a good book and perfume, chocolate and diamonds, sports cars and suntans, shoes and soft blankets, clean floors and afternoon soccer games.  We love our friends to the moon and back and have deeper relationships with a select few.  We love our men and our children so much that we would die for them.  Not to get all mushy because we also love wine and raunchy sex talk with our girlfriends on Girls Night Out!!  We love decorations and little blue boxes with white ribbons. So I just think I will tell my son not to worry about studying up on women.  For one, it is a total waste of time and for another thing, whatever we say today could change tomorrow.  Why?? Because we are women!!

Life Lesson #15,030-Chinatown. Better Than Park Avenue!

Life Lesson #15,030-Chinatown. Better Than Park Avenue!


On our first full day in NYC we walked around Park Avenue. We walked into the Louis Vuitton where we all know the prices are high.  They have specialty bags that our local Louis Vuitton store does not have. Wow, Oh Wow!! I was in Heaven.  Then we walked into Tiffany & Co. Big Mistake!!  But I'm not spending all of my money in one store so...off to Chinatown!!  Those same LV bags were 5% of the price as the ones on Park Avenue!!  Oh and they not only had Louis Vuitton but also Gucci, Hermes, Chanel, Coach, Prada, Burberry, and Tory Burch bags for like $60!! Now those are good prices!!  Oh and Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses were only $5!!  When I was in Tiffany & Co. I found a beautiful necklace and bracelet.  I go into Chinatown and find the same necklace and bracelet for $35 each!!  Okay, Okay.  I know that they are knockoffs but come on!!  Who can tell unless they are looking very close?  What is so funny is the people selling their wares on the street will tell you not to worry if you get caught with the contraband because you will only spend 2 hours in jail.  These are hardworking Chinese-Americans who I think should run this country.  They can talk you into anything and they get it done!! You walk away happy and feeling like you got an amazing deal.  Just don't waste their time.  I love these people!!

 

You walk past the people selling handbags and jewelry and you see fruit stands.  There's fruit on these stands that I have never seen in my life.  Some of it had spikes and bumps and looked really scary.  Some of it looked really good though.  It was just unusual looking fruit.  I don't think we have that stuff at the local Harris Teeter. 



Then you cross the street to the meat markets.  There are ducks, chickens and who know what other types of foul hanging in the windows.  I thought that was just in Asia!! I had no idea that you could do that in America!! Of course, you feel like you are in a foreign country in Chinatown so for some reason it doesn't seem that strange.  Two doors down from the meat market is the seafood market.  Let me tell you, there is no fresher seafood than this seafood.  The crabs were still crawling all over one another.  The smell was overwhelming.  My son had to cover his nose but it really is something that he will never forget.


There were very unusual buildings.  The McDonald's sign is even written in Chinese.  The only other place in the world where that is done is in China.  There was one building which was 3 stories high.  On the first floor there was a 99 cent store.  On the second floor was a Buddhist Temple.  The third floor is a Jewish Community Center.  NO JOKE!!!  We also saw another building which was a Starbucks on the first floor and the top four floors were a Buddhist Temple.  I have pictures of these places.  I swear it is a true story!





Anyway, Chinatown is a place not to be missed if you visit NYC.  There is not one square inch of that place without something interesting in it.  I hope you get to go there and get that handbag that you have always dreamed of and have never been able to afford.  And remember, if you get caught you will only spend 2 hours in jail!! It's so worth it!! Totally worth it!!

Come back tomorrow for more...