Mother's Day Matching 2015

I didn't plan to take a 20 day blog hiatus but it happened. I was busy with the assembly of my annual review portfolio (which always takes longer than I anticipate) and some consulting work. All is well though!
 
Since I last updated I went to the Boden sale and didn't find anything for myself but got a sweater dress for Emilia that she can wear next year. I haven't shopped much otherwise. I bought and returned a dress from Anthropologie. I will review it for fit soon. I also will review the Lindsay dress from Boden which I liked enough to keep.

The above outfit was worn during our Spring Break trip in St. Barths (top photo). Emilia and I also wore these matching Lilly Pulitzer tunics on Mother's Day (bottom photo). We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo with my parents and sister. She and I got lots of compliments on our matchy match look during both occasions. My favorite ones came from little girls who would shout with glee some variation of, "look mommy, they match!" Emilia really likes matching and asks to do so whenever she spots one of our matching options in a drawer or closet. I think it is fun and makes for endearing photos that I can show her when she's a teenager.

I had a lovely Mother's Day weekend, celebrating with my mom, my mother-in-law, and my stepmother-in-law. Maybe next year I will try to rope them into an even bigger matching plan? I hope you had a nice celebration too.

Put a Bird on It OOTD and Boden Easy Scoop Tunic Review

I have written in the past about my love for themed dressing. I did it as the child of a public school teacher. I did it as a student. And I continue to do it as a junior professor. Now with my work for Covey, I have another reason with an easy theme.

The name Covey takes inspiration from bird life. A covey is a small grouping of birds (or people). I always appreciate a clever print and now I am drawn to all things bird-printed! When I saw the lovely bird print of Boden's Easy Scoop tunic, I had to have it. I knew I wanted to wear it as a tunic and a dress. After reading through reviews I determined that a size 10R would be best for me. Reviewers said this tunic runs small in the bust and I agree with them. The 10R was the right fit and length for me. I paired it with some Spanx leggings (also happy to review these if anyone is curious about quality and sizing... I got mine at Nordstrom Rack on sale) to wear to the first session of Music Together class for the fall semester.

Emilia and I actually both wore bird prints from Boden which was unplanned but fun to match. We got many compliments for it!

Outfit details:
Boden Easy Scoop Tunic
Spanx leggings
Tangerine Tieks (review to come!)

End of Summer OOTD

I wore this while we were in Ft. Lauderdale in early August. I will write a bit more about that trip eventually but I wanted to share a summery outfit before Labor Day weekend officially begins. It also happens to be a matchy match outfit with Emilia. I bought both pieces on clearance from the Tommy Hilfiger outlet in Washington, PA. We wore them to dinner one night but I only managed to get a blurry photo.

I used the trip as an excuse to break in my new Celine "Sophia" sunglasses. They were a gift from Smartbuyglasses.com who has an amazing selection of both designer sunglasses and designer prescription eyeglasses.  Thank you, SmartBuyGlasses!

Excuse the halo of hair that happens whenever I go to Florida especially.

Outfit details:
Tommy Hilfiger dresses on both me and Emilia
Celiné Sophia sunglasses c/o SmartBuyGlasses
Chloé flats

Remember, there's still time to enter my eShakti giveaway! 

Mother's Day Matchy Match OOTD

Although my semester is long over and I have less on my plate, I am still busy working on my annual review, wrapping up my book proposal, drafting a journal article, and focusing on another project that I can't yet share here. (For the record, I am not pregnant! That's almost always the first thing I think when a blogger writes vaguely about exciting news so I figured I should address it.)

The project (exciting in its own right!) actually started a while back but accelerated in April and is on the cusp of being share-able. I will talk about it as soon as I can. It's taken up the time I usually spend blogging which is part of why I considered stopping last month. But after reading some thoughtful comments and emails and thinking it through, I realized that this space is important to me. I don't have a lot of time to put into it but I think it's worth updating whenever possible. Thank you for following along!

So back to the subject at hand... I decided that Emilia and I should match for Mother's Day. I searched for options that would fit her based on things I already own or would like to buy, and I wound up with a baby gap navy striped dress for her to match something in my closet. I actually wore this dress last Mother's Day (from J. Crew two springs ago)! We got a lot of compliments for matching! And next year when she is big enough for Crewcuts sizes, we will have even more to choose from (J. Crew Factory actually has a few matching mom and daughter pieces! Here's another set for mom and daughter. And this blogger favorite from f21 comes in girls sizes too.).

I had a great Mother's Day and went to South Park to play at the playground, see the bison and other animals, and eat lunch with my family, my parents, and my sister. Sadly, my brother had to work. Later that afternoon we visited my stepmother-in-law and family. And we spent the evening with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law at the Pirates game.

And matching sports clothes is always easy! Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Details:
J. Crew dress
Old Navy Leggings
MBMJ flats
Pirates hat and shirt

On E:
Baby gap dress
Old Navy leggings
Stride Rite shoes
Pirates hat and shirt