Wedding Season Wrap Up

This weekend we attended our 9th and final wedding of 2013. This was a light year for our wedding circuit. While it was the last of the season, it was the FIRST wedding of the year that I enjoyed not-pregnant! Yippee! While you know I consider myself a professional wedding guest and I love wedding season, this last one was just not the same... probably partially because I realized I have absolutely NO sober dance moves. Sad but true; I know. This became startling obvious at the first wedding we went to in February, which was particularly well-lit... that didn't help. I learned that wine-free Erin just needs a little help on the dance floor. I have never claimed to be a great dancer, but everyone knows that moves improve with some liquid courage. This is also extra unfortunate because the husband happens to be a great dancer. There, I said it. A little wild, but pretty good. So it was a long summer for him on the dance floor. Don't worry too much about him, though - it appears he found plenty of other dancing partners and wasn't too concerned with me and my (delicious!) diet coke on the sidelines.

See what I mean? Wild. The pretty blonde he's
dancing with is busy planning her wedding,
which will be THE event of 2014. 

So, as the weddings wrap up for this year (unless someone surprises us within the next 6 weeks or so!), I encourage you to do a few things in the off season to prepare for next. Whether you attend a dozen weddings a year or just one, remember what the boy scouts say: be prepared! 

• Shop in the off season: there is no better time to pick up a fabulous dress! Personally, I hate repeating dresses at weddings. Most of the weddings we attend recycle the same group of people (and I mean that in the nicest way - but last year we were practically living with our friends since we went to weddings with them every weekend), so I prefer to not always be "the girl in the ____ dress." I like to be the girl in the pink dress, the girl in the blue dress, the girl in the leopard dress - you see what i mean? I recommend looking for dresses that are wearable for all seasons, but try not go get anything too heavy, as most of the weddings are September-May. Go for silk or chiffon, and stay away from all wool (too hot) or all cotton (too casual). Scour the sales racks and then just leave the dress(es) in your closet (hanging nicely please - not rolled in a ball) until the spring. You will be SO relieved to save yourself a shopping trip then, and you won't see yourself coming and going at next year's soirees. Check out off-price retailers like Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx, since their product isn't always as seasonal. Don't like to dig for deals? You don't have to! Nordstrom Rack is now available online: happy shopping! I also suggest owning at least one LBD: my favorite of the moment (for price point and sweet style) is below and available here: 
  
• Send your gifts: as the etiquette police, I (politely) ask that you get this done! You technically have 1 year to send a wedding gift, and the couple technically has 1 year to write a thank you note. I prefer that both get done within the first 0-6 months. It is so easy to send a gift online now and usually obtain free shipping. Since we attend so many weddings (and I realized I was spending a fortune on wrapping paper), I have started sending gifts before the weddings from the online registries and try to check it off the list shortly after receiving the invitation. (The only problem is my pregnancy brain couldn't remember who I did and didn't send gifts too.... so if you have short term memory loss like me, be sure to this down somewhere... or something!)
• Find more reasons to celebrate: Now that wedding season is over, don't turn into a video-game-addicted, glued-to-the-tv-for-football, hermit! These sweet adjectives may apply more to our male readers.... But for the ladies, same goes for you! There are still plenty of occasions that call for get-togethers, and if not, let's make some! We recently had our friends over about a month into newlywed bliss and they filled our evening with laughter as we heard about their hilarious/disastrous honeymoon. Likewise, it is so fun to go (aka invite yourself) to the newlyweds home and enjoy fun night eating and drinking off all their new toys! Who doesn't love to be the first to use a monogrammed wineglass? That is a Saturday night win in my book! Seriously though, sometimes we have to remind ourselves to do this when there isn't an event booked on the calendar every month. Not a chef or professional entertainer? No problem! Take a page out of my (kitchen-challenged) book and get a Papa Murphy's pizza - cut into squares and put on a pretty platter. (All pizza is more fancy in squares. Plus there is something about take-n-bake that makes you appear slightly classier than delivery. After all, you do have to drive to get it AND operate the oven with some degree of intelligence.) Add a salad and a bottle of wine and everyone's happy. Read more about my adventures in cooking in the next post.... 

OK - now that you have read this, you have permission to go watch football. But invite someone over to watch with you, would ya? And do some online shopping from the couch. 

PS - Thank you so much to those who subscribed via email! I really appreciate you! The winner of the drawing is... Brandon Hemphill! He will be receiving a little something special in the mail. Keep reading for more potential contests or deals! Thanks again. 

Help a sister out

Hello, Fashionistas! I write you with a request. As many of you know, I am currently enjoying this strange, surreal vacation known as maternity leave. It is the first time I haven't worked since... well, before I started my babysitting empire at age 12. (Those were the days of a paper agenda and a home phone line and let me tell you - I booked New Years Eve a whole year in advance!) I guess that is where my over-achiever issues began... You could say I'm a bit of a busy bee, so blogging has been a good form of "work" for me during this time off. Of course, I couldn't just blog, but I had to set goals for myself too. I know - I have problems. 

Anyways, I wanted to share with you that one of my goals was to really get the blog up and running - like consistently. I love to write and to be honest, I feel like life just provides me with stories to be told! I want to keep sharing them with all of you, and hopefully doing so will also share some advice, fashionable information, mommyhood chaos, or at the very least, laughter. 

This is where you come in. I would love love love if you could "subscribe" to Broke-O by entering your email address in the top left corner. Then, without ever lifting another delicate, manicured finger, new blog entries will magically appear in your email inbox! It's like the fairyblogmother/stork will just drop a little present in there about once a week. How delightful! Next, I would also love love love if occasionally, if you feel so inclined, you could leave a comment on here. You know, say what you think, what you like, what you hate, whatever. If we are not already, it would be fun to be your friend on FB or Instagram too. You have probably figured out that I am trying to develop what the genius internet gurus call a "following," and I want to know you're a part of it! Seriously though, I appreciate each of you who take the time to read this. So much. And so, I want to work on taking it up a notch.

THANK YOU and much love.

xoxo

PS If you think this sounds too hard, just take a look at Gav. Be glad you're not wearing a girl sweater from yesteryear. See, things could be worse. 

PPS If that hilarious face is not incentive enough, everyone who email subscribes will be entered to win a gift card to one of my favorite places... I will "draw" for a winner next week! It could be you!

DIY... not so scary after all

Last week I had my first little DIY experiment and I am proud to say: I did it! While I consider myself creative and like a project here and there, I prefer a method known as BIY – Buy It Yourself. I feel like I can get a good idea but instead of crafting it, I usually find someone to do it for me. Fortunately, I have a wealth of helpful resources in that area; the husband has not only refinished but built furniture from scratch to match my hairbrained ideas (I usually provide him with very specific instructions, such as “I want it painted chocolate CHIP mint, not cucumber mint!”), my very talented friend has designed gorgeous Christmas cards, shower invitations and thank you notes (her Etsy shop is reopening next week here),  another is gifted at party prep and planning, and when I’m really desperate, I can find something pretty dang quick on Etsy. Or my other best friend comes in handy, Amazon Prime. So, DIY does not really have a place in my heart. Or home. However, Halloween reared it’s evil head, and I had no choice.

Of course, we already had Gavin’s Halloween costume planned. The husband, being the king of costumes, requested about 9 months ago that the baby be a bear for his first Halloween. (He has a weird obsession with bears right now that I don’t get or care to further investigate.) This was no problem, as one of Gavin’s older girlfriends had previously worn a bear costume, so we were set. (Here is a sweet non-Halloween edition if you just want something cute to keep baby warm with - love these things.)  Then comes the night of October 30^th.

“What are you going to wear?” asked the husband, accusingly, I might add. “What do you mean? Gavin is going to be a bear and I am going to be… me.” I actually (mistakenly) thought I would finally be off the hook for dressing up now that the husband has his own protégé – my dream come true! No more weird rainbow ballerina costumes for me! I was going to enjoy this Halloween costume-free. But no. He acted like I should have known all along I needed a costume too. For someone who has 21 tubs of dress-up clothes, it’s odd to me that this was never mentioned until the DAY BEFORE. I digress.

Anyways, if I HAD to dress up, at least maybe I could finally get my wish of dressing up 1) as something normal and 2) as a family. I have always wanted to be a cute couple dressing up, like Don and Betty Draper or something equally dapper. But no. I have had the pleasure of going to Halloween parties with the Chiquita Banana fruit-basket-on-her-head lady, a fairy, a rainbow DJ, and more. The closest I ever got to my cute couple costume was when we were the “Tequila Bandits” and that is a whole other blog post for a different trip down memory lane! (And that memory is a foggy one; the costume title alone can give you a hint.)

First, I thought we could be the 3 Bears. It took him about 2 seconds to shoot that idea down. Of course, it was way too NORMAL. Plus, I admit, I wasn’t thrilled with dressing up as a bear myself. Goldilocks was another option, but I really don’t have the hair for it. Terrified, I asked the husband what he might be dressing up as. “A bear hunter.” Um, excuse me? Your kid is a bear and so you are going to be a bear hunter? Great, you want CPS alerted on our first Halloween. No. His second costume choice (always gotta have a back up) was Timothy Treadwell. Typical. Another costume that no one will understand what/who he is. I explained that he would look like a blond guy with a black eye, which did not go with the bear theme. Had we planned this in advance, the aforementioned talent (or Etsy, or Amazon) could have helped produce something great for all of us. But time was not our friend.

So, inspired by none other than the famous Yogi Bear, I decided to be a honey pot and suggested the husband join us as the bee. If I was going to dress up, I was going to take charge! For the first time in 9 Halloweens together, I won. I practically ran a victory lap around the house! But it gets better. I could tell he didn’t have full confidence in this yet. Skepticism was oozing from the costume king. Especially when I called him at work to ask him if he thought it was a good idea to make my honeycomb hat out of the pasta strainer. (I had no time for the DIY ideas I frantically searched for online – sandwich boards and foam tubing? I don’t think so!) I had to act fast and make it legit. So, a quick trip to target and literally 10 minutes of crafting later, my strainer was transformed by a little gold wrapping paper and masking tape. I threw on my gold cardigan (with some gold necklaces of course) and turned a pencil into a honey wand/stick/thing. Boom! I was a honeypot and there was nothing he could do about it. When a stunned, “Wow, that actually worked,” came out of his mouth, I had made it. To be considered quality on Halloween by this man ranked right up there with my life’s crowning achievements! Truly, I usually don’t care how he feels about what I wear, but Halloween is his holiday, and I had finally risen to the occasion!

missing stripes + a martini = creepy bee

Then, there was him to worry about it. That bumble bee. While yellow painters tape on a black shirt was a good idea in theory, in practicality it was not. Unfortunately, the pencils did not serve his costume as well as mine, as his bee antennas were pitifully un-pointy. One beverage in and his stripes were peeling and his antennas were drooping. His DIY was kind of… a fail. But the husband was a good sport. I consider it payback for all the “joy” I have endured with him on Halloweens past. Moral of the story: when you need a DIY costume, be a honeypot, not a bumble bee. (And don't ever assume your Halloween can be costume-free... at least not in this house.)

PS Let me know if you need your own honey pot building instructions by commenting below and I'll give you the skinny!

PPS If you have better DIY costumes (and i'm sure you do) - share those too!

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.