Tailgating Tips from Broke-O

Unless you live under a rock (and by that I mean giant boulder), you know that it is full-on football season! In this house, that means football is the soundtrack to my life on Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Four. Whole. Days. I like football! But, I also like… reality TV. So, this also means that I only have 3 precious days where I can control the television and catch up as quickly as possible on my really important shows like the Kardashians, Sister Wives, 19 Kids and Counting, etc. The husband does admittedly watch a few shows WITH me, which I appreciate. But this further complicates things, as we also only have those limited time slots to squeeze in Nashville, Chicago Fire, Parenthood, and Modern Family. As you can see, our TV schedule gets booked up pretty quickly! Luckily, Baby G likes all of these shows too so we “let” him stay up and watch them with us. He drives a tough bargain but you know, we want to be the cool parents.

So, when we’re not watching football with TV shows wedged in between (PS ask me if you need suggestions for your own TV viewing or summaries of this season’s events –maternity leave has really solidified my commitment to Scott Disick), we do actually leave the house and GO to the football games. As many of you know, we are loyal University of Washington alum and love supporting Husky Football! This year, the season has been extra eventful for us since we did a little thing called have a baby in the middle of it. That said, we did miss 2 games, but are proud to be back at it. Now, we have the best accessory of all – a teeny tiny Dawg Fan, Gavin! Obviously, we have had to adjust our tailgate tactics slightly to accommodate this little Husky. Here are my expert (that is a very loose term) tips for tailgating with a Mini:

      Hydrate: the diaper bag is also a PERFECT holder for a bottle of wine. Fits like a glove into those side pockets! Think of it like this – pack bottles for baby and a bottle for you. Everyone will be happy. (Be sure to buy a screw top bottle of wine - easier for travel!) Likewise, beer cans slide nicely into the ERGObaby front pack (check out this new cute gray one) when the babe is still small. The husband easily packed 2 in there + our son. We don’t consider any of this inappropriate. Space efficiency is dire when it comes to tailgating, so you do what you must.

Pack in advance: You will need to bring a minimum of a million more things with you for the babe, so I suggest packing your bag in advance to ensure you get all the necessities. Then, you can go back and eliminate some of the nonsense stuff you threw in there and lighten your load. Like don’t bring the whole lip gloss collection, but more like your top 2 favorites (this Chanel is my #1 right now). Oh did I say the baby needs a lot? You know what I mean.

Speaking of packing, bring someone to carry all that stuff: You must have a pack horse… aka husband… aka personal assistant? Whatever. Whoever. This cannot be done alone! Basically, one person takes the little Dawg and one person takes everything else. Teamwork at its prime.
     

Make a plan: What they say is true. You’re a little less spontaneous when you have a tiny human in tow. Personally, this is not a negative for me. I literally despise spontaneity. Ask the husband – he really appreciate this about me. Not. I can’t help it! I just really dislike spur of the moment plans and disorganization of any sort. So, I’m happy to make a plan and stick to it. And make sure everyone else does too. Let’s just say no one listened to me the first time around, and we learned the hard way this is necessary. Miles later and 2 sore backs and 4 sore feet, we realized we had overdone it just a tad.  I was even more disappointed when those guys who ride the bikes with the little carriages on the back told me it was going to cost $30 for a ride to our car! Even in my desperation, I couldn’t give a guy on a bike with a boombox thirty bucks. So, I suggest making a (flexible) timeline for your day with a general idea of where you want to be when. Share the plan with the packhorse and your day is smooth sailing.
      

       Last, remember layers: This is a tricky time of year with the weather, so dress in layers to be prepared. When in doubt, wear more. Some of my favorite cold weather tricks are tights under jeans or leggings, slipper socks inside my boots, handwarmers in my pockets and my shoes, don't be afraid of faux fur (for anyone! Check out gap.com for my vest and variations of Baby G's fuzzy bear suit) and obviously bring a blanket for your bleacher seats! For convenience purposes, you should definitely have a cross body bag too. This Rebecca Minkoff is perfect and just came out in great new colors. I love the soft grey - amazing neutral. (Can't get in time for football season - remember to ask Santa!) Remember – only 2 lip glosses in there, though. After all, you need room for the tickets! May the best team (and best dressed tailgater) win!

      

PS: A quick plug - I recently added a "subscribe" box to my blog and would love for you to do so. I value all of you fashionistas and want to make sure you are updated, pronto, with the happenings on here. Thanks for following my antics! I promise to keep 'em coming. 

wine and the woes that come with it

I apologize for the lapse in posts! Now, the reason I haven’t written is quite simple. What did we just talk about?? Yes, sale season! I have been SWAMPED with that four letter word (s-a-l-e) and it has just tuckered me out. The last week of my life has looking something like this: work/shop-drink-sleep; work/shop-drink-sleep, over and over. Some nights, I have been so exhausted, I even skipped the drink! However, I was sure to make up for that (oh-so-important) part during my wine-tasting weekend…

Us Washingtonians are fortunate to live in a place filled with recreational opportunities – you can boat in the summer, ski in the winter, and drink wine… all year round I guess! (What’s stopping you? You can taste the vino in Woodinville, Yakima, Walla Walla, Portland… Well, that last one’s not in Washington, but you get the point.) We’ll get to that boating/water situation later, and I’m not even going to go INTO snow gear, because that is just ridiculous to drag yourself up a mountain, freeze to death, get your lips chapped, wear outfits that make you look like a puffed-up marshmallow, and claim you’re having fun. Everyone knows this fashionista hates the snow and all the fashion faux-pas that come with it, so moving on to the best of the best: wine-tasting!

First major obstacle to overcome – if you venture to the land of vino in the summertime, hello, heat wave! Also, the more you drink, the hotter you get! Therefore, the mission is this: dress to impress, while not being half-naked. Furthermore, let’s not forget the two words that were made very clear to me the first month of my marriage: no, not “unconditional love” or something silly like that. WINE STAINS. And our outfit must remember that as well.

It was a typical newlywed night in our house a few months back. The wine was flowing and the thank you notes were being written at warp speed by one of us, and with painstaking, heartfelt care by the other. (I’ll let you guess who was writing what.) It is sort of a blur now, as I have tried to forget the nightmare that nearly caused a divorce, (or could it have been an annulment? Probably!) but I will try and revisit tragedy for the sake of my loyal readers. Like I said, there was a little vino amidst the drone of thank yous, and suddenly, a chase broke out! We were running circles around the apartment, and the nimble Tinkerbell known as Erin gracefully leaped over her glass of wine sitting on the hardwood floor. Thinking fondly of my Shrek of a husband, I squealed in warning, “There’s wine! There’s wine!” Then, just as I suspected, Mr. Fee-fie-fo-fum came barreling behind me and PUNTED THE FULL GLASS OF RED WINE INTO THE CREAM COUCH. It instantly shattered and splattered everywhere. There was wine on the walls, wine on the floor, wine.on.the.brand.new.pure.ivory.couch. And then, there were sobs. It literally looked like a murder had taken place on my couch, and I was mourning the loss. And, the husband thought this was hilarious. But no, not I. Crumpled and crying, I moaned that we could never have nice things, and that soon we would be living in a cardboard box, and that such a stain could never be fixed. Weeks went by, and the tears kept coming, as we waited for our warranty technician to come save the day. He came, and he failed. Now, my couch was blue. Blood red, dark blue, grey, a big giant bruise is what it looked like – you would have never known this was once a camel-backed beautiful sofa. Despite my efforts to turn over the cushions, it was impossible. The couch was wrecked, and as I was convinced, so was the marriage. How could you possibly take care of each other if you could not even take care of a piece of furniture? So much for ever having a pet or a kid! We were too dysfunctional to even own a loveseat!

Then, one fateful night, the husband, tired of Tinkerbell’s tears, returned home with… a bin of Oxy-Clean. We lovingly bathed the couch in it, gladly withstood the stench of bleach, and waited with great anticipation to pull the cushion covers out of the washing machine. The results were: perfection. Oxy-Clean saved the couch, and our newlywed bliss! I instantly loved the couch, the apartment, and most importantly, the husband once again. But, my fashionistas, what did we learn from this experience? Numerous lessons. Don’t put wine on the floor, and if you do, don’t ever, EVER play a game of chase. Most valuable – should you stain not just your fave couch, but your favorite, most precious article of CLOTHING – Oxy-Clean can and will fix all!

Now, back to the wine tasting weekend. Fortunately, there was no need for the angel of Oxy yet. But there we were. The terrible two. Me, sweating in a strapless dress, wishing he would just let me buy him some new shorts. Him, sweating in the CORDUROY shorts and driving Miss Daisy all over Yakima. On our next trip, we will be better prepared, and I hope to see our svelte selves in one of the following suggestions:

For the femmes, I am CRAVING a maxi dress. (Truth be told, I do already have one, but it’s from last year and I just NEED another one, preferably printed.) Long, cool and breezy, these babies are the simple solutions to summer events. You could wear one for a number of W words… wine-tasting, weddings, water festivities (like as a swimsuit cover up, or for a day on the beach boardwalk, etc). I really love this one from J.Crew.

But, if you don’t love mustard as much as I do, or the 3-digit price point, this one from Forever21 is a steal of a deal!

For our man friends, what ever happened to the classic polo? This is what I’m talking about!

Then, for those stinking shorts I wish so badly he would let me buy, J.Crew has about ten thousand and seven options. I particularly like their “Club Shorts,” like these ones. Will the wine-glass-punter husband ever be the proud owner of such cute shorts? Stay tuned.