a plaid skirt and a long-winded bit o' nothing

 shoes: cato brand. skirt: american eagle. belt: husband's. shirt: vintage/gift. bracelet: forever21. watch: target. earrings: hawaii.

I feel like I have nothing to say lately. 'Cept late at night, when my husband's trying to sleep, and I remember everything that ever happened to me...ever...and it comes bursting out of the dam we call my mouth. THEN I have stuff to say. And, lucky for him, it's suuuuper interesting and funny and insightful. Like play-by-plays of how each kid reacted at the dentist's, or how many packs of gum our toddler threw in the grocery cart, or how I finally lost that one toenail I knew I was going to lose.

As you can imagine, he's riveted to my every word during the course of such conversational fodder and probably bemoans the fact that in just a few short hours I'll run out of stuff to say and we'll have to go to sleep.

And if you can't see the sarcasmic slime oozing out from your computer screen, I just don't know what to tell you. Until 11 p.m., that is. Then I'll give you an earful.

Happy Friday!

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More Roberta Chiarella...

not to brag, but I'd be an AllStar de-motivational speaker.

shoes: cato brand. shorts: american eagle. shirt: vintage. jacket: gift (talbot's). watch: target. necklace & belt: forever21. earrings: hawaii.

When we first got married, my husband wanted to be an inventor. His two “best” ideas (ahem… debatable… but you didn’t hear it from me) were: (1) a toaster hooked up to a conveyor belt that would serve you toast in bed, and (2) a snow shovel that sent out a laser beam in front to semi-melt the snow before the shovel blade got to it.

Needless to say, he never quit his day job.

What can we all learn from this sad story? Merely this: sometimes you CAN’T be anything you want to be. I think it’s a disservice to teach kids otherwise. Take today's outfit, for example: my brain envisioned a sassy, slender, sophisticated ensemble when I put this together. What my camera envisions is a hot sloppy mess.

But here's the deal [Editor's note: Geesh, sounding a little defensive, aren't we? Why yes, yes we are]: It's lace day at Everybody, Everywhere. I neither own lots of lace nor like it in large quantities on me. So. What you see is a little lace trim on a lightweight cotton shirt and some crochet-lace peeptoe wedges. Balanced with some masculine tweed and random turquoise. And when I say "balanced," I of course mean "for some reason I dreamed last night that these would all work together. Right before I dreamed that my husband was frantically in charge of his work's Sub For Santa...in June."

Do with that information what you will.

Happy Tuesday.

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More The Limited...

midi-length denim skirt...non-frump-style...I hope...

 shoes: steve madden. skirt: old navy (i think?). belt: thrifted (american eagle). top: gift. jacket: kohl's. necklace: forever21. bracelet: downeast basics.

This week I'm grateful for:

- Buy an entree get one free for date night. Score!

- Double date night with some fabulous friends.

- Beautiful weather.

- Kids in swimsuits. All day. Almost every day.

- Soft tissues (kleenex-style).

- Public libraries. Specifically, mine.

- Almost the end of school...and our upcoming family vacation to Ca-lee-for-ni-ay. And a surprise for the kiddos that (they won't know about this until the day of) I'm not going to tell you guys but I'll give you a hint: rhymes with Schmisneyschmand.

- Catching my husband giving our daughter a pretend "makeover" (an empty blush brush) because she begged him and because he's the world's #1 Dad.

- Fresh fruit and veggies.

- Not flossing. I can't help it. I'm so grateful for not flossing.

Happy Sunday!

p.s. Don't forget to enter this week's GIVEAWAY!

T minus 26 minutes

 shoes: converse brand. jeans: kohl's. shirt: gift/vintage. blazer: thrifted. watch: target. necklace: don't recall.

Guess who did NOT sleep well last night? (Please tell me you guessed I'm talking about myself, because if you didn't and you're now racking your brain as to who among your acquaintance didn't sleep well last night and how in the world would I know them well enough to blog about them, then we're going to have to start from the scratchiest of scratch, and I'm too tired to do that...because it's ME! I'M the one who didn't sleep well last night. Thankyouverymuch.)

I have no idea why, either, but the fact remains: I, who normally sleep so still it makes a sleeping log look like a Riverdancer, tossed and turned and turned and tossed all through the night. (There's a point to this sob story...I'll get there.)

[Editor's note: Note the above reference to Irish dancing? Since tomorrow St. Patty's? Heads up. Get yo' green on.] [Assistant Editor's note: Forgive Editor's lame use of "yo'." I tried to talk her out of it, but she just glared at me and muttered something that sounded like "fo' shizzle"...so I let it be.]

Ahem. So, long story short (hah!), I totally slept through my normal wakeup time this morning. I had exactly 26 minutes to get myself and the three kidlets up, dressed, breakfasted, and ready for school/the day. So I whirlwinded by my closet on my way to the girls' room, and this is what the centrifugal forces threw onto my body. I'm not naked, so it'll do.

But...isn't the embroidery on this shirt pretty? I like how it balances out the somewhat masculinity of the blazer. And how the Cons keep things lighthearted (a little Unexpected and Maybe Awesome here). Plus, they're easy to kick off when I take a mid-morning nap. Boom-shahka.

Happy Wednesday!

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More Asos...

the whole truth & nothing but the truth...mostly...

boots: Target. tights, shirt, & necklace: gifted. skirt: sam's club (wait, sam's club?! is she serious? yes.) trench: F21. scarf: a total tourist shop in Sweden.

The truth is: I love colored tights. These beauties (which I got in the mail yesterday from my cute friend Val) were absolutely my jumping-off point today. Here's the best part about them: they are super-dee-dooper bright. Here's the problem with them: their brightness.

My biggest challenge in starting with such a you-could-see-these-babies-from-space accessory [Editor's note: Are tights accessories? Hmmm...discuss.] was finding a balance of (a) more neutral items so I didn't become a walking disco-ball-o'-blinding-brightness and (b) at least a little bit of color so not ALLLL attention is on my knees.

 

Because, really. Knees? If that's a Top-10 physical feature, I'm toast.

 

I considered wearing some chocolate walking shorts with the tights. But I thought the darkness of the brown would be a little jarring right next to this particular shade of blue. Enter: olive corduroy skirt. Not too dark, not too light, not too colorful, not too dull. Just a little too big, but nothing a few safety pins in back couldn't fix.

 

[Editor's note: Most of my pencil skirts, okay, ALL of them, are too big because I bought them to wear low on my waist. This isn't where pencil skirts should rest! It's way more flattering to have them fit the woman's form (even if you're shaped like a certain square-pants cartoon character, like me--at least TRY to fake it), up higher on the waist. So. I've been tailoring all my skirts to fit...with varying degrees of permanence & success...]

 

A white cotton v-neck shirt with pretty detailing was a quiet yet feminine addition to an outfit full of solid, fairly masculine pieces. Neutral short trench coat, boots, necklace, and hairstyle. (I wanted to show off the little crimpies in my hair from yesterday's braids...they're subtle here, but I like them.) With the trench belt, aNOTHER belt would be overkill, but the eyelet trim of this shirt is visually interesting without being too bold. Add a feminine, patterned scarf (untied because there's already a lot going on around my neck; I felt like I needed something vertical) that gives purpose to the bright blue tights but in a more toned-down way, and a blue beaded necklace as a bracelet. Done and done.

 

I dunno, guys. Did it work? Still not sure about this one... 

 

Happy Wednesday.