Grace Under Pressure

It’s hard to believe that I’m already on the home stretch of my maternity leave, but somehow, in the whirlwind that my life has become, almost eight weeks have gone by since the baby was born. I’ll be going back to work on a very part-time basis this month, transitioning back to full-time starting in January, and I’m having a lot of feelings about it.

Review: Midnight in Paris Streetcar

By now, I bet most of you know that I might be a Trashy Diva fanatic. I've fallen wildly in love with just about everything they've put out in the past two years, particularly the Wildflowers collection and my very favorite, Venice Nights. Given how much I absolutely loved Venice Nights, and how often I've worn it since it came out last year, I had high hopes for this year's travel print. And my goodness, Midnight in Paris did not disappoint!

Life Update: She's Here!

For those of you who've seen any of my recent Insta posts, this post will be old news. But in case anyone was wondering what happened to my lovely, predictable three-times-per-week update schedule, here's your answer: it's gone the way of every other schedule and routine in my life, because our baby is here!

My first postpartum blog shoot took three minutes flat.

Doing the Batty Bat

Last weekend, I made what was either a massive tactical error or an accidental genius move: I went to Target to buy two specific things. Needless to say, I left with a trunkful of stuff, including all the baby things ever and some key components of my Halloween capsule wardrobe.

Baby, You're a Star

Well, after a couple of rather heavy and/or ranty posts lately, I'd say that we're all due for something a bit more uplifting, eh? So today, I wanted to share something that I've been thinking about quite a lot over the past few months, and talk a little bit about kindness.

My Halloween Capsule Wardrobe

Have capsule wardrobes fallen from favor? I feel like I see far fewer blog posts about capsule wardrobes than I did a year ago. But this just makes me think that it's about time for me to write a capsule wardrobe post of my own, since I'm the opposite of an early adopter. And since it's October, you probably could've guessed that my very first capsule wardrobe would be Halloween-themed!

Lake and Columbus (I was cutting off all my hair)

After the last time I donated my hair, I wasn't sure I'd ever do it again. It was what you might call a slightly traumatic experience, for those of us whose problems mainly fall into the 'first-world' category. It was about three years ago now, but I still remember the particular indignity of sitting in my car sobbing in the garage at LMU before dragging myself to teach my afternoon classes.

Look, it's Jenny!

Bye Bye, Buy Buy Baby

Lately it seems like every other post I write is baby-related, but I suppose that comes with the eight-months-and-three-weeks-pregnant territory. I've been spending most of my free time preparing for the baby, shopping for her, and taking classes over at the hospital, not to mention trying frantically to thin my dress hoard. And since this blog is where I talk about all the things on my mind, I suppose it makes sense that right now it's riding the 7:30 express train to Babysville.

Well, that and most of my dresses no longer fit.

Memento Mori

Being pregnant in 2017 feels a little like I'm having a child in the last third of On the Beach. Even though I've literally never been more excited about anything else in my entire life, I can see the inexorable doom approaching.

And the Livin' is Easy

Well, it's finally fall, even though it's been ludicrously hot in Chicago for almost a week now. This summer was been super eventful, and it was such a nice change of pace from the first several months of the year! First, my mom came to visit, and after spending one of the nicest weekends I've had all year with her, I had two days of Trashy Diva meetups the very next weekend. I went to Vintage Garage Chicago for the first time and scored some sweet new dresses and an epic suitcase, and Jeff and I had a lovely babymoon around Chicago.