Summer in October; The Pregnancy Clothing Chronicles

Am I actually writing a blog post about this?

I think I am... even though the weather is cooling down (now). I'm also not including any pictures in this post because there is nothing glamorous about complaining about how your clothes fit.

Last Sunday, after spending the better part of the day in yoga clothes - having taught at 830am and then taken yoga at 1pm - I got out of the shower around 5pm so hubs and I could make our one outing of the day together; a quick run to Target for a new video game.

I showered before he did. I always do when we are planning to go out because it takes the length of one husband shower for me to get my face on. Usually that works out perfectly.

Usually was not this past Sunday.

This past Sunday I got out of the shower and started looking through my clean clothes for something light and flattering to wear into the 100 degree heat. AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT I FOUND????

Nothing.

I found nothing that fit all of these criteria; clean, light, and flattering.

Maybe I just needed to do laundry? Yes, that's possible.

but I think I know what else you're thinking - "you're pregnant, Alyssa, get over your definition of flattering", but it's actually not that hard for me to find flattering things... usually (by my standards anyway). I kind of love my shape right now. When adorned appropriately, pregnant bellies are downright adorable and I'm proud to have one.
The trouble was finding things that were flattering and didn't also make me feel like I was wearing wool - because when its 100 degrees outside and you're pregnant, everything is itchy and hot.

I dug around and found a pair of clean, black maternity shorts with an itchy belly band that I can't fold down anymore because my son is too large and won't tolerate that kind of discomfort/tightness around the lower abdomen any longer, and a tank top that I only kind of like when I'm not pregnant, but was one of the few shirts in my closet that was long enough and could be easily paired with the shorts.

I was not comfortable. I was sweaty and itchy and all I wanted was to turn around, go back home and put on my pjs.

The next best option was to use this time at Target to buy things that looked large and comfortable... which is exactly what I did. I bought myself three super soft cottony things - a GOM nighty (on sale, woot!), this lattice back dress in black, and a really long cozy tshirt.

I wore them all within the next 48 hours, and today it is 20 degrees cooler than last weekend, so I may never need to wear them again. *face palm*

August Favorites

I've never done one of these just general favorites posts before, but in the last few weeks I've found some new things that I love and I just wanted to let you know how amazing they are.

1) ME! Bath Madagascar Vanilla & Lavender  - For my birthday, my grandma took me to the Spa at Nordy's. The woman doing my nails put this lotion on my hands and I fell in love. I needed it in my life. I wanted to smell that smell every day. I'm usually not a huge fan of lavender, and I think vanilla reserves a special place in the kitchen, so the idea of combining them and wearing it around didn't really tickle my fancy... but actually smelling it. My mind was blown. The lavender is more subtle, cleaner and warmed by the vanilla which just tickles the senses and makes me want to smell my skin all day long.

2) Clif MOJO Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Pretzel - Pregnancy does this funny thing to people (me). It makes your blood sugar kersplat on the floor and sometimes gives you fun headaches and sleepiness midday. To combat this, I bought a mondo variety pack of granola bars and a case of iced teas at Costco to keep at my desk at work. This particular bar surprised me. I'm not usually a fan of the peanut butter pretzel combination. It may be my ever changing pregnant taste buds, but these are my absolute favorite granola bars right now. The peanut butter chips are a sweet contrast to the chunks of pretzel. I thought these were going to be the bars I saved for last and had to force myself to eat, but they were gone so much faster than the other bars in the box.

3) OPI Bubble Bath - It's on my nails right now. Natural looking, but still perfectly opaque and sheer at the same time.

4) eos Summer Fruit Lip Balm - I'm only a little late to the party on this one. I've been using these bubs for a while, but this one is my favorite. It's the red one and it smells like fruit roll up. I'm a sucker for anything that smells or tastes like fruit roll ups.

5) búcha Grapefruit Sage - I didn't know what to think of drinking sage flavored kombucha, but its amazing. You need it in your life.

6) MAKE UP FOREVER Smoky Extravagant Mascara - I got this in a mini version as part of my birthday gift from Sephora. At first I just started to use it on top of my older mascara. Using old and then new gives the new something to grab onto and lashes get fuller and longer. I wasn't planning on loving it or buying it when I run out, but now I definitely am. This mascara blew my mind. I love my lashes when I use it.

7) BABYBEARSHOP Organic Cheeky Baby Butter - Another take away from my spa day with my Glamma. It's meant to be used on baby bottoms for diaper rash or anything like that, but I've been using it on my cuticles. My hands dry out so fast. I'm trying to heal them up. It's perfect for anything like that and you only need a tiny bit. I've barely made a tiny dent in this tub.

Do you have any new favorites? Care to share?

My Freedom From Tax Returns Fix

I'm on staycation this week. Have I mentioned that? I'm in town - living it up in luxury, spending time with people I love, doing things that make me happy... all. week. long.

I scheduled myself a Stitch Fix specifically to arrive the Monday after tax season - before I'd even planned this week. It would be my gift to myself -  a surprise box of joy to arrive on my doorstep the morning after we got back from spending Easter with my inlaws.

It actually ended up arriving on the Friday before Easter, which was lucky because I'd already checked the website and seen the written descriptions of what was coming. I was dying to see it and try it all on.

My First Stitchfix

After hearing all over the blogosphere about Stitchfix, and because I do most of my shopping online anyway (ain't nobody got time to go the store and try things on), I decided to give it a try. Let someone else shop for me, dangit.

I tried it mostly out of curiosity. I wanted to see if it was possible, based on the style profile they put together for me, for someone else to shop for me and for me to actually like what they picked out.

I decided to have my first Stitchfix delivered the Monday after I ran my half marathon. I thought I might feel skinny that day - not really thinking about all the carbs I would inhale after I finished. Who knew I would be so completely famished after running 13.1 miles!?

Not important.

For anyone not in the know, I'm gonna do a quick breakdown of how it works. You go to their website, sign up and complete your style profile. They ask a whole slew of questions to get to know you, your style, and your body type. Then when you're ready to try it, you pick the day, pay $20, your personal stylist picks things out just for you and they send you a box with 5 items - tops, jeans, jewelry, accessories, dresses. You can choose what types of items you'd prefer and, if you're looking something specific, leave your request in the notes/comments.
Once you receive your fix, you try everything on and decide what you want to keep. They take the $20 you already paid off of whatever you're keeping, and you send the rest back in a prepaid pack. Easy peasy. If you decide to keep everything, you get 25% off everything in the box.