Maternity Style Hacks

When I got pregnant, I had three main goals with respect to my maternity wardrobe. First, I wanted to avoid wearing boring, generic maternity wear as much as I possibly could. Second, I wanted to wear my prepregnancy wardrobe for as long as I could, because I really like my current clothes. Finally, as much as humanly possible, I wanted to buy things that would work as well after my pregnancy as they did during. At eight months and change into this pregnancy thing, I'm pretty happy with how I'd done so far, so today I'm sharing some of the top maternity style hacks that have gotten me this far.

Hot Mama: a Stylish and Cool Third-Trimester Dress

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the year you buy an air conditioner is the year you'll get a ridiculously mild summer. To anyone out there in Chicago that's reading this: you're welcome. Remember that one week of 90+ degree heat and humidity in early June? Yeah, that ended the day before we had our ACs installed.

Iron Gate Dress and Ironclad Habits

Even though I utterly despise heat and humidity, I must admit that Chicago really comes alive in the summer. It seems like there's a festival or two every weekend, and every public space is absolutely crawling with people! Jeff and I have been joining the crowds more often than usual, taking in some of the attractions that we hadn't visited yet and crossing more restaurants off of our list.

I'm definitely a creature of habit. I've seen Star Wars upwards of 75 times, because I prefer to watch movies that I know I love rather than taking a risk on an unknown quantity. I buy the same cheese every time we have bread and cheese night, because Cambozola is the best cheese that has ever existed and I can't stand the risk of substandard cheese. I buy multiple colorways of my favorite dresses and skirts (for more evidence of this, see here and here, here and here, or here and here). When I like something, I really like it!

Wishlist Wednesday #14

In the past couple of months, I haven't had nearly as much time to window-shop online, which is good for my bank account but not so good for my Wishlist Wednesday series. However, I'm making up for it this week: a ton of gorgeous new things have hit my favorite online shops, and I'm rounding them all up for your viewing pleasure!

$25 and Under

This red obi belt from Trashy Diva *might* fall into my shopping cart the next time I need to hit the free shipping threshold…

Wishlist Wednesday Update: Effie's Heart Lemons

The theme of today is 'when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.' I've had another pretty rough day of travel and a full day of work after waking at 4:45am. This delightful marathon culminated in a surprise thunderstorm, a mad dash across Museum Campus to my bus (during which time I got absolutely drenched), and a longer-than-usual bus ride in which rain dripped onto me inside the bus. Oh, and a clogged drain in the bathroom sink, which may or may not get fixed tomorrow. Le sigh. However, this makes me appreciate my cozy apartment more than usual, and now that I'm dry, I'm just hoping that Jeff gets home soon, because I'm excited to see him after my weekend in New York!

Way back in the early days of this blog, I went nuts over fruit prints for the first (but not the last!) time. I already own two other Effie's Heart dresses in the exact same cut as this lemon print dress, and since I love them both, I felt confident that I needed another. Well, after waiting a couple of months, I'm happy to update you all on the status of my fruit-printed dress collection! I ordered it in one of Modcloth's sitewide sales, and this was definitely worth it. Don't you just love it when something completely lives up to your fanciful expectations?

#DumpTrump Dinner: Make Cauliflower Gratin Again!

Credit where credit is due: I stole the pun from my cousin. He is peerlessly punny.

I've been super busy since last Thursday, doing all sorts of fun stuff. It's a nice change of pace from my adjunct days, when "super busy" meant "prepping classes, teaching, and grading until 10pm every day." Jeff and I had an amazing Chicago adventure this weekend (post coming soon! Well, soonish. I have too many outfits to post first!), and my cousin was in town visiting his girlfriend, so I had a fun evening with them and some of their friends.

Friday was the world's longest day, because I inexplicably woke at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. But since all 22 hours I spent awake were pretty awesome, and I liked my outfit, it was a major success! I met my cousin and his girlfriend at their friends' place, and we cooked an epic dinner and watched old episodes of Top Chef and Samantha Bee's new show.