Friday, December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas + Our Family Photos

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We're planning to spend today at home in our matching pajamas, snuggled up around the tree opening presents, watching Christmas movies, and cooking a (hopefully not too) fancy Christmas dinner.

Prior to the 2020 craziness, Jeff and I always talked about spending Christmas mornings at our house once we had kids, so while this year feels *weird* it's also where we always planned to be. At home with our family, combining our extended family's traditions and making new ones of our own. 


I think I mentioned a few times that taking our family photos this year was, well, exciting. Mia was not having it, to the point that our photographer invited us to pop back during another of her sessions to try again. We cajoled, we danced, we tickled, we snuck snacks into her mouth (like, in basically every photo you can see a yogurt bite!) and we even played videos from Frozen and Tangled on our phones, but nothing really worked. We still ended up with a few photos with smiles (or at least what looks like smiles - sometimes Mia's angry screaming face photographs as a smile!) so I'm calling it a win. Here are a few (of the many, many) from our sessions: 















P.S. Our photographer was Victoria C, we used her last year too and she's also shot some of our friends and extended family! We did our first session (the green photos) at Winnemac Park, and our second session in the Lincoln Park Nature Walk. 



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Thursday, December 17, 2020

November Budget

I share my clothing budget here every month. My budget per month is $350, which may seem like a lot to some people or a little to others, but for me feels just right. I include all of my clothes, coats, shoes, and accessories in that budget, but not athletic gear, pajamas, or intimates.


Oh heeeyyyyyy I haven't written a blog post in two weeks!! Holy moly I've heard moms complain before about how crazy the Christmas season is, and now that I have a toddler running around I fully get it. I have one thousand things on my to-do list to complete before next week. But it's all in the name of making Christmas special for Mia, so I'm happy to do it. 

That being said, I'm so sorry for not getting to my November budget earlier, because it's a lot of Christmas clothes, and it's now probably too late for you to get any of them in time. So really, I'm sorry for being such a tease over here. I decided Mia and I were going to match as much as possible this holiday season, and that plus the few pounds more I weigh than I did pre-babies and pre-pandemic, means a few new holiday items. 

My absolute favorite thing though are these velvet pants. They are so comfy but make you look dressed up - basically fancy joggers. I wore them for Thanksgiving and have been putting them on for some fancy WFH, and fully plan on pulling them out again for Christmas. I went with my typical dress size, but I'd suggest going down one size for these as they are a little roomy.

Here's the rest of my purchases for November: 



LOFT Poncho: originally $59.50, on sale + used rewards $20.46. I bought this durning a November heat wave when I thought a short sleeve sweater would be a good idea. We are now past that part of Chicago winter haha, but I really liked this the two times I wore it! 
J.Crew Factory Plaid Ruffle Blouse: originally $64.50, on sale $25.60. I bought this specifically to twin with Mia. I thought it wouldn't be particularly flattering on me, but I was surprised by how cute it is in person! I wore this here
J.Crew Factory Pearl Bow Earrings: originally $22.50, on sale $8.80. These are my favorite earrings forever and ever. I've been wearing them basically every day. They are so, so cute for the holidays, but I think I'll keep wearing them until the *fun* summer earrings come out to play ;) 
J.Crew Factory Plaid Bow Scrunchie (sold out but the J.Crew version is almost identical): originally $16.50, on sale $6.37. I obviously needed this for holiday matching. Worth it. 
LOFT Cowl Neck Tunic Sweater: originally $59.50, on sale + used rewards $20.46. Really, I was just looking for more tops to wear with leggings since I've gotten super into quarantine style lately. This isn't anything special, but it fits the "wear with leggings" bill. 
J.Crew Velvet Wide-Leg Pants: originally $118, on sale $59.00. Like I said above, these are the perfect holiday pant, because they look classy but are super comfy to wear. Definitely not the most flattering thing in the world, but I'm not letting that stop me! 
J.Crew Ribbed Ruffle Neck T-Shirt: originally $49.50, on sale $24.75. I reeeeeeally wanted this and was going crazy waiting for it to go on sale. I had the tank top version of this top in white and black for summer (seen here) and both the tank top and long sleeve versions are perfect for tucking into skirts or higher waisted pants if you, like me, don't like bodysuits. Plus the ruffle detail is so cute! The scoop neck is a little low for me though, I wouldn't wear it for work. Unless I'm not turning on my camera for meetings ;) 
LOFT Bobble Sweater: originally $59.50, on sale + used rewards $20.46. I like the texture on this but it is super see-through and not so warm. It worked great during warmer fall weather, but I wouldn't recommend it for true winter. 
J.Crew Factory Plaid Button-Down: originally $59.50, on sale $24.65. I bought this specifically to twin with Mia too, and then the top for her ended up getting cancelled. Wah wahhhhhhh. This top is a little more "business" than most of my button-downs and it definitely isn't my favorite because of that, but I still have been wearing it because I cannot stop with the plaid. 
J.Crew Factory Plaid Scarf: originally $49.50, on sale $19.60. I kept telling myself not to buy more plaid scarves because I have like five of these plaid scarves from J.Crew Factory from previous years, but then I bought Mia some blackwatch plaid and obviously I needed this scarf to match. Someone please send help. 

Total Spent: $230.15


Moving forward, I'll share a budget post for December but I think for next year I'm going to drop the full "budget" post every month and just share my favorites. My guess is, you're less interested in how much I spent and saved on new things in my closet, and more interested in my current finds and favorites. Let me know if I'm wrong! 

For December I'm basically not shopping for myself besides a couple of novelty Christmas sweatshirts from Alice & Wonder. The pandemic seems to have finally caught up with me ;) 



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Friday, December 4, 2020

Friday Finds

Happy Friday!! How was your Thanksgiving?? Such a weird year. We were planning to have Thanksgiving at home by ourselves (I even made an overly ambitious meal plan for the day!) but then Jeff's parents quarantined for a full two weeks for us so we ended up at their house. His family usually has pretty small Thanksgivings so it actually felt strangely normal. I'm not a huge Thanksgiving food fan, but I got some mashed potatoes and gravy so I was a happy camper.

I thought I was supposed to have this Friday off work but it got changed to next Friday instead, so I'm in a very confusing place mentally at the moment haha. We don't have much going on this weekend, but we are planning to wander the city to look at Christmas lights. I'm also hoping to wrap a few Christmas gifts, because our bedroom is the current holding place and it's starting to explode! I'm weirdly excited that Mia is at the age now where she's excited to open presents, so I may have gone a little overboard ;) 

Here are my finds for the week: 






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