Last Week's Top Hits

Hi Everyone!  So many fun and cool things have happened over the last couple of weeks, but I've been too busy living in the moment to write about it beyond the Instagram and IRL.  I'm gonna take a stab at recapping some of it now.  The main thing is that my boys' spring and summer activities overlapped.  All of those, combined with various child related (non emergency and emergency) doctors appointments last week about sent me into orbit. Precious Peanut #1 ran his first 5K via the AMAZING boys running program, Let Me Run, and Precious Peanut #2, to his dismay, is stuck wearing an eye patch two hours a day for some time to come... hopeful nonsurgical preventative measures hard at work here!

Precious Peanut #2 will graduate from Kindergarten at our church preschool where my boys have been for the last nine years combined.  This will mean a much needed increased ability for me to work but also that my daily demands and time commitments as a Mom will lessen.  It is bittersweet. I will be shedding a lot of tears on Thursday. On a fun note, Paper Twist sent me this GORGEOUS monogrammed planner last week!  You'll never believe what I left off my calendar on my phone... perhaps this new planner will be just the answer!

I ordered my first bathing suit in FIVE YEARS.  I absolutely loathe bathing suit shopping, but I lost my stretched out top and bottom one too many times jumping off the diving board last year.  I've always had great success with J.Crew, and you can't beat the price.  Use code SALESTYLE to take 30% off all J.Crew Sale items now.

I had the pleasure of attending The First Tee Ladies luncheon last week at Charlotte Country Club.  We heard touching stories from two high school students who have been long time participants in the program, and North Carolina ranked #1 golf instructor, Dana Rader, was on hand to share with us some of her great coaching practices.   She explained the nature of her relationship with the students and the importance of unconditional affection for them.. "I am there for you in the good times AND the bad times."  She told us that she encourages the students to journal and the confidence building effects keeping a journal can have for all.   The many great character building components reminded me of Let Me Run.

I noticed my friend Heather donning her chic bamboo handbag at a couple of events lately. They wood color will pair nicely with everything during the warm spring and summer months. I'd really like to have this green acrylic version, but in the mean time it took me about 2.6 seconds to press the order button on this equally attractive knock off version at a fraction of the cost. 

One last thing on that note.  It was super cool last week to open up my in box and see my all time favorite fashion blogger, Blair Eadie, wearing the long version of the very dress I styled one of my beautiful clients in for the Kentucky Derby.  Blair even approves of the bag!

Here is the shorter Alexis dress my client wore, and the longer one Blair wore.

Blair Eadie's Best + Southern Spring Home & Garden Show

Hello Everyone!  It's been a very busy couple of weeks, and I'm grateful for that!  So I'm sorry I've been away for a bit... Did you miss me?  Just a short little ditty today, but well worth it.  I think Blair Eadie has outdone herself with her latest outfit post.  The girl does NOT miss a beat.  It doesn't hurt having one of the most coveted closets in all the land.  But somebody's gotta be that girl, eh?  See the full post HERE. 

I'm excited to be headed to the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show tomorrow with my parents and Precious Peanut #2 (Heaven help we do not "you break it, you buy it" everything in site! :).  I think this unseasonably warm spring like weather has got us all excited to be outside, and I don't know about you, but with that I always want to be working on a beautiful outdoor space.  It is an area I have only little experience, but like interiors, I always love looking and getting great ideas.  I'll be posting about my finds from the show and excited to be giving away tickets for one reader and their guest(s) for the show next weekend, March 3-5, so stay tuned if you want those tickets to be yours!  

Treggings and Stirrups

Who What Wear was probably the first fashion blog I ever laid eyes on.  That or Blair Eadie's Atlantic-Pacific, which might actually have been brought to my attention via Who What Wear. 

Who What Wear is ALL about style. Street Style, Celebrity Style, Fashion, Trends, you name it, and with their email newsletter you get a daily dose of what's going down that very day.  They find a way to make every single post relevant and interesting. Let's take their recent post on treggings.  Not jeggings, not stirrups, TREGGINGS.  Das right.  Treggings.  

Are treggings the new jeggings? I mean, I can't even say that I care, but I am intrigued.  What are your thoughts? Do you own a pair?  Have you seen someone else in a pair?  Do even realize that you are going to walk straight into fall this year and see more 80's paraphernalia than you believe humanly possible since 1990? I will be really honest, a little tiny piece of me wants to put on a pair of metallic stirrups and colored high heels just for shock factor and fun. See what Who What Wear has to say on the matter. 

And of course, shop your stirrups, jeggings and treggings heart out below and HERE. 

Pom Pom Puff Ball Overload

If I see one more of those fuzzy little pom pom puff balls hanging from some girls purse, I think I am going to snag them from her bag and force them down my throat until I choke and can no longer breathe!  So, that's how I really feel about overly popularized puff ball pom pom charm. Trends typically annoy me.  Not in the artistic creative, see how this designer articulates the trend compared to that one, but the way that I really simply cannot stand to do whatever it is that others are doing, or in this case, wearing.  Some of the more original fashion mavens....Bianca Jagger, Johnny Depp, Diana Vreeland, Diane Keaton, Iris Apfel, Jennifer Lopez and Michelle Obama.  The thing I love about each of these ladies (and gent!) is that while I may or may not identify with their personal style, I admire that they HAVE their own personal, consistent sense of style going on.  Jennifer Aniston and Kate Middleton too.  They do THEM.  Jen A, always so simple, monochromatic and fit, and Kate; always put together, hair combed, lip gloss and more often than not a nude pump....

Of course I say that, and then my style is ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.  I tend to dress for the occasion and/or the people I will be seeing, and I tend to do that in a very maximalist way... whatever the style or occasion is.  One day it's bohemian, the next day classic, the next colorful and the next sophisticated.  

My (quite winded) point of this all is to do YOU, and every time I see this stupid little puff balls my face looks like an emoji I don't think is yet represented.  I'd be happy seeing one or two, but they are literally EVERYWHERE made my EVERY retailer.  That said, what do I know?!  I will brag on two of my favorite gal pal fashion bloggers, Blair Eadie and Bethany Diffey.  They both have their own thing going on and make that silly little puffball look so good everybody (except me) wants in on it.  Oh, and Jamie Meares over at i suwanee sells them at her store, Furbish and on line, I bet like nobody's business.

If you are diggin' the little pom pom puffballs, I've put together a list of the cutest I could find. Can't see those little fuzzy fellas down there?  Click HERE. 

If Blair And Sam Can Do It...

Dress: Topshop. Purse: Chanel. Headband: thanks to ZoeLynn & Co. Sunglasses: Blinde.  Shoes: Cole Haan. Ring: Melinda Maria

I am not one to normally copycat, and my biggest fashion nightmare is seeing someone else in anything I own, but when I spotted this dress on the never subtle, always ahead of time blogging starlet, Blair Eadie, I hit the purchase button immediately.  I always joke that the models almost always wear anything new of mine before I do.  Just because I love it, means I have to have it.  Just because I love it, however, doesn't mean I actually have anywhere to wear it.  In walk model for photo shoot.  Shoes, jewels, sunglasses and dresses, including this one, worn by the ethereal Samantha Mills, get worn by everybody but... ALMOST me.  Until these photos were taken.  the Queen City Style is my little make believe stage!