Vintage Garage Chicago

May was quite an exciting month for me. Between Member's Night, the Windy Pretties meetup, and my mother's visit to Chicago, there wasn't a dull moment in sight, and I'm so pleased to share one of my favorite May adventures with you today: my day at Vintage Garage Chicago with some of the Windy Pretties!

Baby on Board

It's taken a Herculean effort to keep this news off of the internet, but at last, it's time to spill the beans: we are having a baby in October!

She's Gone to Plaid!

Earlier this month, my mom came to visit Chicago for the very first time! Here are some things you need to know about my mom:

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Star Wars turns 40

Today is basically like Christmas, the anniversary of the moon landing, and Cake Day all rolled in to one: Star Wars is 40 years old! I know #MaytheFourth literally just happened, but it's not every year that my favorite thing in the world turns the big 4-0, so I decided to save my geeksplosion for a dedicated birthday post.

Members Only (Anyone Can Join!)

The past four days or so have been absolutely bonkers. (Sidebar: 'bonkers' is one of my new favorite words to use.) Between Members' Nights at the Field Museum last Thursday/Friday and the Windy Pretties meetup on Saturday and yesterday, I've just had so many exciting events to attend!

Remembrance of Things Past

My Mom-Mom had a blanket that her sister made for her. Her sister finished it right before she passed away; I'm not quite sure whether her sister gave it to Mom-Mom, or whether it was given to Mom-Mom after her sister's passing. Regardless, Mom-Mom would always tell us about how that blanket sat up on the shelf in her closet ever since. It just made her too sad to use it. I could never quite see why something made with love would make Mom-Mom feel this way.

The other day, while looking for something to wear for a day of very long train rides, I came across this dress and finally understood.

Dogwood L'amour

If you'd told me two years ago that I'd have more than one blue dress in my closet, I'd've said you were mad. However, it's a bit of a pattern with me to spend ages actively, vocally disparaging something (in this case, one of the primary colors) before unexpectedly embracing it, with no apparent reason for the change of heart. (Other times this has happened: blazers after college, pencil skirts, and that one John Mayer song.) Trashy Diva's Dogwood pattern, though, was easy to fall for., and after an first unsuccessful attempt at this print with the Day Dress, I grabbed a L'amour and fell in amour. (#Sorrynotsorry. I'm genetically predisposed to bad jokes.)

All Bodies ARE Good Bodies

Earlier this week, I went to a talk at work on millenials' attitudes about gender. (Sidebar: it was really nice to take in some sociology on my lunch hour!) One part of the talk really stuck with me, particularly since we're in the middle of #WiggleWeek and I've got body acceptance on the brain, so I'm going to air out my thoughts in today's post. Strap yourselves in, people: I'm letting my inner political theorist out to play (at least a little bit)!

Review: Pretty Dress Company Hepburn Pencil Dress

Over the past year or so, I've gone from somebody who barely tolerates florals to someone with a closet full of bright, bold floral dresses. I guess it's the logical outgrowth of my tendency to use color to keep the winter doldrums at bay. So when I saw that my beloved Hepburn dress from the Pretty Dress Company was also available as a perfect little pencil dress, I knew I'd be adding another gorgeous floral PDC wiggle to my closet.

Wiggle Week II

If you're anything like me, you were born sick and tired of looking at gorgeous clothes and thinking 'that's so pretty, but I could never wear that.' My style-obsessed heart aches for all the gorgeous people out there who've internalized society's garbage beauty standards. I've been there and it's not fun. Last November, I decided to devote a week to breaking through these negative thoughts, and thus Wiggle Week was born!

World's silliest graphic.

On Milestones (My 200th Post!)

Since the ability to remember idiosyncratic anniversaries and count small achievements is one of my hidden superpowers, I'm excited to report that this is my 200th blog post! (Seriously, I'm the kind of person who passes the time on the elliptical machine by multiplying the number of strides or calories per minute by the number of minutes remaining in my workout, and then trying to beat my projected totals. What can I say: it keeps my mind engaged!)