Tag Archives: J.Crew

Flourescing.

The tooth fairy came the other night. Poppy has already lost the two front lower ones but now the first top one has gone! She was actually very brave and gave it a tough yank herself to get it out – she was determined to get that $5! I remember the days it was just 10p per tooth – showing my age again I guess.

It seems a long time since I wore a dress/tunic which is unusual for me so today I popped on last year’s Boden chic linen tunic. Given it’s a very flat grey/silver color – the same color as the sky here today – I decided to elevate it with a bit of neon – not sure if I’ve overdone it with the lime J.Crew scarf, pink J.Crew cardigan and pink Tory Burch Revas? So funny too – I walked into the office and my colleague, who I have converted to Boden, is wearing exactly the same tunic with black leggings and a black jacket – it’s the new Halcyon Media uniform:) Sorry for the fuzzy photo – was too much in a rush this morning and too tired again after another late night listening to Bill.

Give me strength this afternoon – I have a 2hr session at the Y with swim team followed by gymnastics for Poppy – which means instead of sitting on my backside watching, my guilty conscience will force me into the gym – 2hrs in the steam room may be preferable:)

Officially obsessed with boots.

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Fall is my favorite season. Mainly for the weather – it stays in the high 70s here through till November normally and we’ve had many a Halloween where the children have been sweltering in their costumes – and it is perfect once the humidity dissipates towards the end of September. You can’t beat a gorgeous, crisp Fall day in the Georgia mountains. However, another key reason for loving Fall is all the fabulous boots that I can start wearing. I have always been and will always be a boot fan.

Many of you who have been reading my posts for a while will be familiar with my outrageous Frye obsession. Though I am pretty miffed with them right now due to their recent partnership with Coach, I am still loving some of the new Fryes that have been released this Fall – many embracing the studded trend. My favorite are these Jenna boots in gray that I have already treated myself to and wore the other week.

They also do a tall version but I think I prefer the shorter version – but maybe that’s because I already have the Veronica slouch which is similar but without studs.

I’m currently lusting over the Phillip harness studded but I can’t decide which to get – the short would look great with skinny jeans and my All Saints jumpers, but the tall are slim enough in the calf to wear with a knitted dress and tights – and I love the impact of the zip all the way up the calf. They both have a great flat heel too, perfect for chasing after children.

I am also loving the Vince Camuto Autumn boots that are sitting waiting to be worn at home. After buying them at DSW I discovered them $60 cheaper on the Vince Camuto website so I ended up returning the first pair to DSW and getting the black and taupe for *almost* the price of one pair:) I justified it don’t worry! The taupe by the way is very much more of a taupe color than the ivory that is depicted on their website. I’ve never worn this brand before so will be interested to see how $100 boots hold up compared to my Fryes.

Finally these are on my hit list too – but how many pairs of boots does a girl really need? They may be a little too similar to my Frye Shirley strappy boots to justify this one. Again at $100 they are a great bargain. I love the straps and buckles and both colors look fabulous on the Nordstrom website.

As it is past Labor Day now I think can get away with wearing light weight long sleeves and boots so today I am wearing my Express blush Zeldas, a Zara zip back top from the sale that was only $15, my H&M scarf, which only when I came to wear it for the first time today did I realize that it was actually a snood, all polished off with my Ash Thelma wedges which are coming into their own in the wet drizzle that Isaac is leaving us with.

A tad tired today after staying up to watch Michelle Obama’s speech – I have to say I thought she was incredible – passionate and sincere – she looked stunning too in a Tracey Reese dress and J.Crew pumps.

I love the 80s

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I hope all you US folks had a great long Labor weekend – we certainly did – very relaxing with a baseball game thrown in there for some good fun too. Most of it was spent around the pool which in turn leads me to one big gripe I have living over here – why are so many Americans uncomfortable with nudity?

I really think next time around I need to come back French or Scandinavian or similar. Leaving the pool on Sunday we were reprimanded by the lifeguard for changing our children by the pool instead of using the nasty changing rooms (someone must have had a party in there the night before). Another swimmer had complained about us. Now feel free to disagree, but anyone who is offended by a 4 and 6 year old changing discretely by the pool has some real issues. I’m neither a prude nor a frequent visitor of nudist beaches, but when in France I often sunbathe topless and the last thing I want is for my children to have any hang ups about their naked bodies, or anyone else’s for that matter. I want them to retain their innocence and cavort naked when they please – in the appropriate setting of course. Unfortunately this is not the first time I have encountered this kind of concern about nudity here. Once in the Y a woman complained to another lady changing her 3 year old son in the ladies changing room. The complainer actually said it was ‘like pornography’ – I stepped in irate that anyone could suggest this about a naked 3 year old. I was so angry I was almost in tears. Please get over it – we all have the same bits, relax and stop imposing your hang ups on everyone else.

We were lucky enough on Sunday evening to head to Turner Field to watch the Braves. MM and I used to go to the baseball quite often before the children arrived. It is a fun spectacle – great for people watching and enjoying a hot dog and a cold beer or two. Sunday was the first time we had taken the children and in Chipper Jones’ last season it was an important game. We all had a fabulous time with great seats close to home plate. We left at the 7th innings as the children were getting tired and the Braves were heading for defeat…unfortunately we missed a cracking final innings when the Braves won with a home run from Chipper!

For the game I wore my J.Crew chambray spotty shorts, AllSaints Tilly t-shirt and fab Ash Thelma wedges. It always surprises me how comfortable these shoes are.

Once again I am loving the 80s and today I feel very Nik Kershaw with my baggy Top Shop pants and Zara jacket with rolled up sleeves. Even the Sam Edelman Alvin loafers have a retro feel about them. I’d fit right in back at Live Aid.

One last note – I’ve just had a vent on one of the posts on The Frye Company’s Facebook page. They have just released some boots in collaboration with Coach. Why oh why would they do this?? It is a dangerous partnership if you ask me with my marketing head on. I cannot believe that their research tells them the same people that buy Frye buy Coach. I am so disappointed – Coach has become a masstige brand and I fear the halo effect will reduce the credibility of the Frye brand…What do you think about brand partnerships?

It’s my Friday.

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Thursdays are my Fridays – I’m very lucky to have Friday as ‘my day’. If the rain steers clear tomorrow I plan on trying to run 8miles for the first time in months. I have a half coming up in October, which on the calendar looks really close now! Then it’ll be time for the half at Thanksgiving and before I know it Miami will be looming…can I handle it? One thing is for sure I am eating like a horse again with all this running. My resolution is to at least try to eat like a healthy horse.

Have any of you ever responded to a Facebook offer? I was a little skeptical when I first saw ‘xyz has just redeemed and offer at abc’ appear on my news feed but today for the first time I acted on one and bought a necklace. I have been looking for a while at the J.Crew bubble necklace but there are some things I just won’t spend $150 on – costume jewelry is one of those things. I’ve found lots of copy cats on eBay and Etsy.com but still some of them are $30 and above, and seem a bit risky to chance. Well today I saw an offer at Lovely Lola Boutique and with shipping the necklace is just $14.90 – so I ordered 2! You have to make a separate order for each necklace but at $14.90 it seemed too good to miss and well worth the risk…I’ll keep you posted when they arrive – though it sounds like it’ll be late September as there are just two girls packing and shipping! This is not an endorsement as I have no affiliation with them – so fingers crossed that the necklaces are as fab as I hope!

The pink one would have looked great with my outfit today. I’m wearing my green J.Crew shorts (in the sale at $35), an old H&M top, Zara off white jogging jacket and my Frye Carson button shorts. Had to dash out of the house this morning to carpool so the photos were taken in the office bathroom! Sorry!

This morning as I dropped off Hugh, one of the teachers at daycare told me I looked a different person from when I was taking Poppy there 5 years ago…I have to agree I don’t recognize that person anymore either.

Zara hits the nail on the head yet again.

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Much as I love blogging it has had its pros and cons. Cons mainly being I am always verging on being skint from seeing and buying gorgeous clothes modeled by my favorite blogging friends, and pros being that I have been exposed to lots of other fabulous brands that I may not have ventured to try in the past – basically resulting in the con. Thank goodness for eBay hey so I can constantly recycle my closet! Anyway my favorite new retail lust is Zara. I’ve always known they were in Atlanta but never bothered to venture in opting to stick with my trusty, quality brands like J.Crew, Boden, AllSaints and H&M. Zara is a tad pricier than H&M but is always spot on trend and being a trouser girl they always seem to have plenty to offer for me. I love how they are constantly rotating their stock. Their sizes are hit or miss but I’m learning to figure them out so I can order online with a little more confidence and benefit from items that haven’t been tried on 20 times, plus they offer free shipping. In the past week or so their new collection has been filtering into stores and online, and I ordered these fabulous TRF snake print trousers which arrived yesterday. They are DIVINE. They are a gorgeous blend of neutral colors – lots of taupe, blush and nudes which means you can wear them with anything from a white shirt to a pink tee. They have ankle zips and, on my legs, finish neatly at the ankle. I can’t tell you enough how thrilled I am with them not to mention they were just $59.90!

I just ordered the snake skin shirt – not to wear with the pants – that might be overkill – but as I love the colors and pattern so much I thought the shirt would be great with jeans – black or blue denim. I am truly embracing the animal print trend this season – though I can’t avoid it even when only Bet Lynch and I are wearing leopard print.

Today it is hot, hot, hot and I’m taking it easy in the air conditioning. I find this heat really exhausting so I don’t plan on doing too much today except for a fun dinner with the family and then watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony. Staying in has allowed me to enjoy the comfort of jeans again and I am wearing my Primark floral jeans – best bargain of the year at 5 GBP, along with a sale bargain from Zara – a lovely pink linen t-shirt which incidentally will look great with the new pants! All paired with my trusty Tory Burch musk Eddie ballet flats – the best nude shoes I have. Here’s to a fun weekend y’all and yes I’ll be cheering Team USA and Team GB – I think that is allowed:)

Carrot and stick approach.

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So school starts back on the 6th August – ridiculously early in my opinion but we have been off since May 22nd so Poppy is definitely ready to get back into a routine. She attended a first grade camp the other week to prepare her, and us, for the increased academic load of 1st grade. Now much as I have tried to keep the reading going over the summer it became apparent that there has been some ‘it’s the summer and my brain is a sieve’ effect – hence I’ve stepped up the sight word practice, math and reading over the past week to appease my guilt and hopefully boost her confidence. I always try to remain calm, patient and attentive and keep it light hearted and fun – i.e. I try to morph into what most would call a ‘reasonable person’. Unfortunately Poppy is 50% me and 50% her Dad so can be prone to tantrums whilst being stubborn as a mule – great – a model pupil:) So rather than threatening to remove all privileges if she doesn’t comply I am trying an approach that I know works well with me – bribery. For every week that she completes her assigned activities she will receive $10 to spend as she wishes – or even save if she pleases – but I think that ‘save’ gene may be absent thanks to me. We’ll see how the carrot approach works…but if her complaints about a week being to long to wait before being rewarded are anything to go by it’s still going to be a challenge. Please send oodles of calm, serenity and patience my way for the next school year.

I’m very excited about the Olympics starting this week after going cold turkey this week – I’ve missed having a Tour de France stage to watch every evening…I thought I’d share this photo with you doing the rounds on the social networks. It made me smile – my brother still calls me Eddie for various reasons:)

I’m wearing my gingham J.Crew shorts today with a pink Boden essential t-shirt that I got in the sale last year – it’s so soft I love it. I paired them with a scarf that I think I got from Target but really can’t remember, and my Boden espadrilles from a couple of years ago. Sorry about the wet hair just showered after a lovely 4 miles this morning!

Oh that reminds me of 2 additional sales purchases I received yesterday – 2 Blighty Boatnecks – highly recommended, though not massively reduced, they are quite thick and perfect for layering over a t-shirt in the cooler months – I love them. I got the dusk and the quail egg and the quality is amazing.

Oh and Hugh’s stash of Fall items arrived – tartan baggies in all colors, half a dozen long sleeved t-shirts and a hoody. Boden’s Mini Boden boys line is amazing – I particularly love the ketchup and scooter applique tees this year. There’s some lovely girls stuff too but as Poppy is still in 5-6 I’m going to wait and see if she has a growth spurt to a 7-8 before ordering anything for her – she has plenty to choose from from last year.

6 months and counting…

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So it is now 6 months until the Miami marathon. I’ve spent a few hours this week figuring out a training plan – mainly following Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 plan. I also plan to do a couple of halves between now and then – I just wish it wasn’t so damn hot right now. I dropped my car off for a service yesterday and took advantage of the 6mile journey to run home – blimey it must have been 90degrees at 8.30am – I needed that coconut water afterwards! I’m also trying to adapt my diet without being overly obsessive or restrictive – cutting out alcohol (well at least between Sundays and Thursdays!), more fruit, more juices (beetroot, celery and ginger is a favorite), zero fast food and more protein. Now just need to incorporate some yoga into my schedule every week for a good stretch.

I have an update on the Express jeans I was lusting after the other day – with the magic of CRM and shopping cart technology Express must have seen I kept loading my cart with the light pink jeans but not actually hitting ‘order’! Low and behold yesterday I got an email offer from the for jeans at $29.99! Jobs a good ‘un – pink jeans now on their way to me:) Promo code was 1626 if you’re interested in them too – it seems to apply to all their jeans right now – not sure how I managed to restrain myself and only order the pink pair!

I’m now officially over living in the basement – clutter is everywhere and I’m finding it impossible to keep tidy…but there is light at the end of the tunnel – the tiling is almost done, the painters are in the the hardwoods get finished next week – so with any luck we’ll be done at the end of next week! Of course the painting and work that has been done is so sparkly and fantastic that it makes the other areas of the house look a little tired…we’ll get to them eventually once my son has stopped slamming his Tonka truck into every wall and baseboard!

Thankfully my fabulous Husband was around this morning to take on the duty of photographing me. After a couple of days in tunics – sorry no photos – I opted for my fab J.Crew green chino shorts – these are 4″ but I noticed they had some 3″ and 5″ lengths in the sale online in other colors. I’m wearing them with my AllSaints vest, H&M linen jumper and fabulous Sam Edelman Louie tan suede boots. Ankle boots with shorts has to be one of my favorite looks from this summer.

We’re in full preparation for the return to school in a week hence the folder of sight words and reading on the table!

Just buy a book.

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Hmmm since I got my iPad I seem to be going through a phase of reading, dare I say it, ‘self help’ books – maybe it’s because I can read them safely without people seeing the cover – in fact I just realized I can avoid the shame of being caught reading ’50 Shades’ that way – no I haven’t read it yet. Anyway when I talk about self-help I don’t mean ‘helping me become a better person type books’ – more ‘how to attain a goal books’ or ‘books that inspire’. For example the first book I read on my iPad was ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall. It really was a great read for an amateur runner – really fun and inspiring – or so I found anyway. Okay now a confessional warning – I am a fan of the US version of The Biggest Loser – I don’t watch every season but those I have I have found incredibly inspiring – and I love Bob Harper. Bob is one of the trainers on the series and is great t.v. – his Facebook page is fun to follow too. Anyway he has a book that has been on the best sellers list for a while – ‘The Skinny Rules’. Sadly I got suckered in and bought it. Now I think we all know what the rules are to keeping slim (I really wish he hadn’t used the word skinny – no one should want to be skinny) – and this book really states the obvious – but still it’s written quite light heartedly and I am enjoying dipping in and out of it to keep me focused on my goal of losing a couple of pounds ready for my marathon training.

Did someone say ‘marathon’? Ah yes that little race I signed up for in January – suddenly January seems very close indeed. So now I am on the search for a book to help me train for my marathon. MM keeps saying just run more but my mind set tells me I won’t have to do that if I just read a book about it…I’m such a sucker! The one I have my eye on is called ‘4 Months to 4 Hours’ – brilliant – just read it and do a bit of training and I can run Miami in 4hrs – perfect! If only that was all there was to it…Now I just need to find the book entitled ‘Stop Shopping and Learn to Save Millions’.

This is my outfit from yesterday – I went to see the fabulous O’Neil again for a haircut wearing my bright pink J.Crew chino shorts, AllSaints Pipali tank and Sam Edelman suede Louie boots in tan suede (yes I have the taupe rose too) which are my favorite boots for a while – really comfy and I love the fringe. I promise the photos will improve soon – the bathroom floor went down yesterday!

Shop my closet!

Channeling the ’80s

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Poppy is at first grade camp this week – I can’t believe that school starts back in 2 weeks! The summer has flown by but it will be nice to get back to a regular routine again and she is so ready to be back at school – she’s really excited to see her friends and teachers again this week. The only draw back of this camp is that it is only from 9am-12pm so barely time for me to get to the office. Instead I’ve been working from home which is lovely as it also means I can get a short run in around Chastain Park after dropping her off. It is fair to say it is NOT running weather here – humid and in the 90s does not feel good at 8am, or at anytime really – but I’ve been twice this week so can feel quite satisfied that I’m actually doing it.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the pool but it really was too hot to be enjoyable so today I think we’ll find an air conditioned activity – unfortunately I don’t think she will agree to shopping which is a shame as I am dying to head to H&M to buy myself these two pairs of jeans. Both are a blush color but one is snakeskin and the other leopard print – I love them and unfortunately there is no online store for H&M here in the US:(

Today I am definitely channeling the 80s in my pink and grey. The t-shirt is H&M and has a bright pink exposed zip at the back – it’s a great length t-shirt and was only $13. I am wearing it with my J.Crew linen scarf from a couple of years ago – wrapped as demonstrated by Avril at School Gate Style – love it! The boyfriend jeans are Gap and the silver diamante encrusted sandals are Steve Madden from a couple of years ago. Still taking photos in the basement with a very dusty mirror – the tiling starts this week!

Poppy's Style

My blog about fashion, family, friends and fun.

Tag Archives: J.Crew

Flourescing.

Officially obsessed with boots.

I love the 80s

It’s my Friday.

Zara hits the nail on the head yet again.

Carrot and stick approach.

6 months and counting…

Just buy a book.

Shop my closet!

Channeling the ’80s

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