Continued: My Long-Lasting Liberty Love.

Hi!  Before I begin a very photo-heavy post of my love affair with Liberty of London's fabrics, I wanted to let you all know that running around for two weeks after 7-9 years olds took its toll and I pretty much slept the entire weekend.  I *almost* fell asleep at church, which lol, I am sure many of you do without being really tired, but for me is almost unheard of.  :)  So I just didn't have the energy to update my blog.

Regarding Boden, I have taken a look at the winter preview site and I think I will pre-order maybe two pieces.  It's not that I am not inspired, no, much of it is very pretty, but honestly, only a couple of things will fill a need in my life, especially considering that I have a major closet overhaul to do before I can truly justify much more in the dress department, at least.  I do have "picks," though, and definitely will publish those fairly soon.  Also, the maternity coupon expired, which bums me out, but maybe that means a really good offer is coming soon?  (We can hope?  I will let you know if a good one comes along.)  For now, there is a 10% off with free ship/returns running in my sidebar, if you need a coupon.

Onto Liberty!

Ah, the Liberty Bouquet Shirtdress.  I have now worn this multiple times this spring and summer, including twice on my trip to GA/NC/VA.  This time was when we were heading to the Chattanooga Childrens Museum, and I knew I couldn't get super dressed up, but wanted to look decent.  :)

I did a review of it back at this post if you ever see it popback on J. Crew or you find one on ebay that you want. 

The shoes are the Antiqued Stone Flip Flops, and are currently on clearance at jcrew.com.  I took a size 9 (I usually wear a size 9.5).  I quite like them, again, kind of dressy casual, you know?

CW's outfit is all girly a la the way the deep south likes 'em, big ole bow in her hair, gingham, and lots of ric-rac and ruffling.  ;)  Her shoes are the Surf and Sand Salt-water sandals that J. Crew sells.  Since we get to our neighborhood pool by crossing a stream, we actually have a need for good water shoes for all members of our family.  Rex even has toddler sized Tevas.  ;)

Outside the museum, after the visit.  HIGHLY recommended.  I love childrens museums, I wish DC had a better one that was closer to us.  I often will just go to the Richmond one instead because it is big, clean, easy to park at, and fairly inexpensive.

The bag is the Frankie bag (Borge Gavari).  I was lucky to be the only bidder on this on ebay a year ago.  I think I ended up paying just around $100.  It was in perfect condition, btw.  Great bag, nice size, the pink isn't too pink, and if you use it every day, it ages nicely, and looks loved, not used.

The sunglasses are my only real splurge (the Long Floral Swing Skirt would have been one, but the eventual super-discount I was able to get from my amazing Personal shopper brought that down out of the stratosphere) in the past six months.  They are Thierry Lasry and upon spying them at the stand alone Anthropologie accessories store in Friendship Heights, I knew that if the Anthro powers that be sent me a 15% birthday coupon, I would use it for these.  They have the incredibly ridiculous name "Sexxxy," but I do love them so.  :)

Close up of glasses in car ride.  I love how you can see CW smiling away back there in her car seat.  That is one plush car seat...no wonder she falls asleep so easily.

I wore the dress again when we were heading home...here we are at Natural Bridge, VA, and if you can, I highly suggest a stop here.  It is an arched stone natural formation that is really really tall, (can't see it in our photo) surrounded by the beauty of the Eastern woodland, and has a perfect little gurgling stream right next to it.  We try to stop here whenever we head to GA, or on the way home from GA....

And guess what is on the other side of the mountain from Natural Bridge (due east)?  Yee-ha!  Lynchburg, you all. :)  This time I stopped at the Millrace location which is were the actual shipping center is located.  I prefer the Wyndhurst location, which is pretty close to this one, but I still found a couple of goodies for some great prices.  (Quinn hobo from 2008--great price; Lula Snakeskin Ballet Flats--great price; Sevigne Capri Sandals--great price; and for Mr. Dina?  Converse Distressed Jack Purcell Sneakers for the especially great price of $10!) 

BTW, those of you wanting Mona heels or a Edie purse?  There were a lot of those, and it was barely into the fall season when I went.  I think you can either go and get them for yourself, OR know that some ebay reseller will have them up for sale, I promise. 

So you all know, the clearance centers sell really nice things.  Only the purse had a slight stain on it, but one that I knew I could get out with leather cleaner.  The other items were in wonderful shape.

This is a Liberty print in Tana Lawn fabric by Theory that I got from Saks on deep clearance a few years back.  Still love this dress, and try and find a reason to wear this at least once a summer.  The reason this time is that I was using the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" in my teaching last week, and wanted dresses and outfits with a floral theme.  (You will see the rest of those, plus the "fish" themed ones from the "Swimmy" week later on this week.)

Yes, I am wearing the frog clasp double strand necklace with this dress.  It has held up well all these years I have owned it.  Only thing, and this is important to note, this is the ONLY jewelry item from J. Crew that I own that does not have the "J. Crew" circle indicating it was made for J. Crew.  So if you get one from ebay, know that it will not have that circle, and that's okay.  Mine was bought from J. Crew, so it is an actual piece from them.

The sandals are the Reese Studded Snakeskin sandals.  Yet another ebay find.  I know these were from the clearance center because they have the tell-tale black mark, but other than that, nothing wrong from my vantage point.  And for $40 versus (I think) $400 (YIKES!), I will take a black mark, fine. with. me.

Finally, Liberty a la Target.  Still love and wear this top, even though it is poly.  We were just going to IKEA that night for dinner (yum, Swedish MEATBALLS!  with LINGONBERRY SAUCE!  and ROSE HIP DRINK!), but any chance to match CW?  Um, yeah!

The shorts are from the J. Crew outlet and the sandals are old school J. Crew circa Spring 2005. 

Alrighty, thanks for indulging my "have seen already" outfit choices.  I guess, if nothing else, it does prove that I do wear items again and again.  LOL. 

Have a great night.  Stay healthy!  And long live Liberty!

September 20, 2009--A Day of Celebration (Baby Baptism and Birthday Party)!!!

Yes, I know this is almost two months late (well, more like a month and a half, but still, a crazy amount of time), but I have to throw my blog friends a bone who like to look at more than me in my clothing (which I also realize are my family and close friends, however, they turn out daily for that quick peek of CW and Rex, so I need to take care of them, too)!

Don't worry, my sweet blog friends into clothing, I plan on doing the J. Crew clearance center post, but I am going to create a polyvore for that, and it is still in planning phase, so give me a few hours! :)

That said, this post still has some clothing in it (how could it not)...



Untitled by dinagideon featuring Theory

And here is the polyvore of the outfit that I wore and my sweet daughter wore on her birthday party/baptism day.

Yes, she was baptized one year and two days after she was born. For Catholics, this is almost unheard of, but we had some "paperwork" issues regarding her Godparents, so it took awhile to get it all together. Thank goodness, though, we worked it out, and in the eyes of the church, she is completely free of original sin. :) (I like this...you wouldn't believe how much time and energy I expended worrying about her poor soul her first year of life...can you tell I am a worrier by nature?)


Back to the outfit. All the info on the pieces is in the polyvore. I bought the Theory dress on super-sale in a size 8. It is GORGEOUS, isn't it??? Turns out many companies make items in Liberty Print fabric. (Yay!!!) And yep, those are my delicious Cole-Haan peep toes. I love them so much I bought them in an olive green color recently (a little smaller, but still very comfy and well-made).


Hey, would you look there? No, that is not a Tartine cardigan from J. Crew last year. Nope, it is the outlet version of the Tartine/Jackie cardigan in the prettiest shade of peacock blue. I have no idea if they still are selling this cardigan at the outlet, but I bought it in a medium for those of you who are curious. BTW, the cardi really did make the party (sorry, couldn't stop myself)...


Now, onto the part of the post for all my kids' admirers. :)

Look at baby CW there, with her adoring Uncle Peter. Can you stand it? Is there anything more precious than a little baby with big owl eyes in a bonnet? On three, 1, 2, 3, "Aaaaaahhhhh...."


Bit blurry, this photo, but so sweet. Love it. Tweaked it a bit in Picasa, but only for the effects...


There's my girl. She is wearing a Baptism gown that Rex also wore. Hopefully this one can be passed down through generations of kids. The one my brother and I wore has sadly been lost...


From left to right...Uncle Peter (Godfather), Me (Mommy), Mr. Dina (hiding...as usual), CW (baby girl), and Amanda (Grandma and Godmother). We are at the point in which CW has been baptized (if you look close you will see her head is wet from the holy water).


Now, it is time to party! And what is better than an ice-cream cake decorated with Yo Gabba Gabba figurines? (BTW, baby CW and Rex went as Foofah--pink figurine, and Brobee--green figurine, for Halloween, and yes, they were very cute, of course...)


Here I am lighting the candle (#1) for her cake. Yes, CW is wearing a "birthday princess" crown on her head and a "It's fun to be one" tee-shirt.

BTW, CW totally wore her Jacadi Liberty Print dress you see in the polyvore above, but (and I know, shocker), we totally forgot to take a photo of her in it. Don't worry, it is a very long dress and very loose on her right now, so I suspect strongly that it will come out to be seen another day, and for another picture. :)


Sorry for how badly exposed this is (dad, take your finger off the flash when taking photos), but still a very sweet image. This is right before things got messy (you mothers and fathers out there know what is coming)...


What kind of one-year old's birthday party doesn't have some sort of hilarity involving a very messy face from placing their head into the cake itself. CW did sort of a "dip head, lick ice cream cake, lift head, stare at her admirers, repeat, repeat" motion for about twenty minutes. This photo is from about halfway through the process. If you think this is bad, you should have seen Rex at his first birthday party. That boy knows how to get messy. :)

Have a nice day, you will hear again from me fairly soon!