All the Frills: The Bookshelf of My Dreams

So here are the first bits of my finished living room refresh – the bookshelf of my dreams! Previously we had a lot of low, wide shelves (IKEA Kallex and Expedit models, to be exact) but we want to consolidate and declutter. So we bought one giant, tall unit that was simultaneously not as deep and I proceed to get rid of about 20 odd books that I felt I could part with and we put almost everything (all our art books are in a different place) in here. I love it!

Weekend Reading:

• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Tammy Duckworth is amazing.
  
• I can 100% believe that NICU mom’s are having a tough time. Lord knows it just about pulled my sanity apart and I was incredibly fortunate in that Eleanor was more or less just fine and only had a short stay in the hospital.
  
• What’s the difference between a frat and a gang?
  
• I will still see I Feel Pretty because I’m not 100% persuaded with this piece but parts of it are undeniably solid.
  
• I’ve been following reports of this cult for a while and it is just straight up bonkers.
  
• The Pulitzer Prize competition this year was pretty fascinating.

Work Life

I love me an all-black outfit for the office. As far as I'm concerned one can never go wrong with something like this for a long day at work. I'm also happy to report that I've been doing pretty well so far in terms of settling into a healthier work-life routine that doesn't keep me at the office late every day of the week (which was basically what happened before I went on mat leave and which I'm been very consciously trying to correct since I returned to work). I often still bring work home but I'm getting pretty disciplined about leaving the office no later than 4:30 and then doing a few work-related things after Eleanor goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm. Fingers crossed I don't back slide!

dress: Simons / black: Calvin Klein via Value Village / boots: Target / necklace: the Met

Velvet and Lace

Eleanor was a big fan of this outfit – the shirt is a velvet material and the blazer is lace, so lots of fun textures for little hands to explore (I'm basically her personal jungle gym now and we spend time everyday with me lying on the floor and her basically just climbing all over me). And I was pretty happy with it too.

pants: Simons / shoes: Spring / shirt: Winners / blazer: Zara / necklace: Stella and Dot

All the Frills: Bedroom Fixes

Doing a bit of a bedroom upgrade as well – specifically creating a picture wall and decluttering the dresser space. I love, LOVE, how this is turning out so far (you can see what it looked like before here).

Weekend Reading:

• This story is just beyond horrifying – seriously it is deeply messed up.
  
• People are disgusting.
  
• Remember Stacy London? I think I’m obsessed with her house.
  
• “Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men.” They’re working to rectify that and recently featured this one of an inspiring mountaineer.
  
• Never forget. Seriously. Never forget. We have a duty to the past.

Party Time

Worn out for a friend’s birthday party a few weeks ago. Getting out for an evening with friends is not a common occurrence anymore around here since Eleanor joined us; so I like to take full advantage of all such opportunities that do arise.

shirt: Contemporaine / cardigan: Pin + Needles / leggings: ASOS / boots: Target / necklace: Stella and Dot

Playing Dress Up

I find the one photo of Eleanor and I here to be just hilarious in that we both look rather irriated and not happy to be there. And I probably wouldn’t be too happy if someone made me wear that hat either (although it is just about the cutest hat for a baby I’ve ever seen). Eleanor at 9 months is basically wearing 12-18 month clothing and so a lot of the cute little outfits she had when she was younger she’s quickly growing out of. And up until a few weeks ago we really didn’t bother with dressing her in anything buy zip up jumpers. As cute as little pants and tops and dresses are, they’re pretty impractical (especially when you’re changing them 5 times a day because baby’s spit up on themselves and have diaper leaks). But Eleanor is off to a day home soon (she starts part time in June) and getting more and more mobile and less in need of multiple outfit changes a day, which means pretty soon we’ll transition her to fully wearing little outfits proper (socks, shoes, pants, etc) and, in the meantime, and because she’s growing out of all the ones we currently have, I’m basically just making an effort to put her in an actual little outfit 2-3 times per week to get some photos and then popping her right back in to one of her comfy, convenient jumpers. Essentially we’re playing dress up.

leggings: Simons / top: Winners / necklace: Aldo

All the Frills: What Was I Thinking?

I’m right in a middle of a rather ill-conceived living room refresh. The idea was simple: let’s get some tall, thin bookshelves as opposed to our current short and wide ones so that we both get a bit more floor space (taller shelves equate to needing fewer of them) and have higher shelves where Eleanor can't reach to put breakable items.

We also acquired a bunch more pieces of art that needed to be hung up so we figured we'd do some shuffling and create some additional wall space for them. The problem was that we made a furniture order but it wasn’t being delivered for a good two weeks and then we listed all our current shelves for sale online and they literally all sold and got picked up within seven hours of us listing them. So that’s how this mess happened. Anyways, stay tuned for the refreshed room reveal soon!

Weekend Reading:

• I’m always excited by the appearance of a new book on Elizabeth I.
  
• So this man is a dangerous idiot.
  
• This story of a con man and how he was taken down is a fascinating read.
  
• My beloved Real Housewives of NY is back!
  
• I was already aware of course, but my daughter’s namesake was all kinds of awesome.

Indoor Outdoor

Hopefully these will be the last of my indoor photos. The weather is nicer and the days are longer, so I’m hoping I can sneak outside for more photos now. Of course the new complication to all that is Eleanor and that a lot hinges on whether she’s up for coming outside for a couple of minutes (and if my helpmeet can both hold her and the camera at the same time as it seems like an awful headache to get her into the stroller for just a few minutes). Yeah, I may have to come up with a new system over here…

shirt: Zara / jacket: Zara / necklace: Stella and Dot / pants: Simons

Anniversary

I recently celebrated my twelfth wedding anniversary (seventeenth overall) – actually just two days before I went back to work. Usually we don’t do a whole lot to celebrate but this year seemed especially significant as Eleanor has joined us so we totally splurged on a stay at a fancy, historic hotel (obviously not all these photos are my own), a romantic dinner, and (perhaps the best part) Eleanor having a sleep over at her grandparents’ place. And, seriously, it was magical. Side note, I was transfixed by the site of a ice-locked river boat from our room’s window. I really couldn’t tell you why.

dress: Simons / necklace: Jenners / boots: Aldo

All the Frills: Dreaming of Spring Shoes

Ever since March hit I’ve been eyeing a bunch of new shoes for spring. Of course it snowed repeatedly here in March, and April is off to a frigid start, making all these shoes impractical, but I don’t care … I just want to imagine myself buying and wearing them all!

*all shoes from here and here*

Weekend Reading:

• So this owl was totally the star of this wedding.
  
• All my favourite wigs are here!
  
• This essay is exceptionally good – read it, it’s well worth it.
  
• Sean Penn is an author … apparently a pretty dismal one too.
  
• This is a fascinating piece that raises excellent points about the ethics of examining human remains in an anthropological context.

Back at Work and It Feels Wonderful!

I wore this my first day back at work and it felt it amazing and wonderful to be back in my office. I didn’t even suffer any mom guilt until it materialized that I would be staying a bit late and I didn’t get home until close to 6 pm. But I suppose that’s to be expected and just par for the course when you come back full time after an 8 month absence (and, just to clarify, I stayed late because I felt I should in order to clear up some important stuff, not because I had to – I’m the Executive Director so there’s no one above me mandating that I stay late and, of course, I would never mandate that to anyone else because I’m not a monster!). Anyways, it feels amazing to be back in the proverbial saddle and to know that Eleanor is enjoying a lot of solid bonding time with her dad at home.

shirt: Simons / leggings: ASOS / boots: Primark / necklace: Monserat de Lucca

Camera Woes

So my one camera recently crapped out on me and I switched over to my spare one and it has been nothing but frustration on a grand scale with this piece of junk. I’m always very unhappy with the photos and, as if that wasn’t enough, I recently tried to transfer about 40 photos from it to my computer (including, unfortunately, some super cute ones of Eleanor) and it basically just ate them and I lost them all save one: this outfit photo. I had a bunch of shots of this dress but they’re all mysteriously gone now and I’m left with this. And I’ve actually now gotten rid of the dress (I paid less than $20 for it, wore it at least 5 times, but the sequins on the collar always scratched at my neck so I just threw in the towel with it). Ugh.

dress: Zara / boots: Franco Sarto