UIN: Spring Slip-ons

Several months after my previous collaboration with UIN, I was asked in a comment on my YouTube review how the shoes have held up.  I answered there, but allow me to do so here as well since it's one of the most important questions any consumer can ask.  In my previous collaboration with UIN I was sent two pairs of slip on shoes which you can view here or here in blog form or watch the YouTube review here.  Since that time I have worn them a lot.  

The fabric fox shoes, officially named Forest Tale Toledo, should you wish to find them on the website, which are quite similar to these Lily shoes, I decided to save as "indoor" shoes.  I have a quirk: I hate wet socks and cold feet.  Because I hate cold feet, I wear socks.  However, because I have a house full of people who constantly spill water on the floor and don't clean it up, I also constantly deal with wet socks.  My solution presented itself in the form of these fabric slipons from UIN.  They're so comfortable and lightweight that I can wear them indoors to keep my feet warm and my socks dry.

Since I live on a farm though, I am constantly going in and out of my house to give scraps to the pigs, check the mail, water the garden, etc, etc.  so I needed a pair of quick slip on shoes that could stand up to the wear so I chose these Little Mermaid Toldeo Slipons from UIN.  I chose them to be my outdoor shoes instead of indoor because the top is made of PU and more water resistant than the fabric variety but still lightweight and easy to slip on and go.  You can save on your purchase of UIN with my codes: Leandra5 ($5 off +$40), Leandra10 ($10 off +$120)

After all these months of wearing them, I can tell you that I've never experienced blisters, never had any issue with odors, and haven't even had to wash them yet because they've just held up beautifully to wear.  So, when UIN contacted me about a spring collaboration I jumped at the chance to add a few new colorful styles to my indoor and outdoor style with these Nelumbo Toledo Slipons. 

I love these fabric slip-ons and this spring flower print is just too adorable and perfect for pairing with my spring wardrobe staple, this blue gingham skirt and a crisp white button down shirt.  While it may look dressed-up it was just as easy to slip on a skirt, a button down, and my UIN's as it is to put on sweat pants and t-shirt, and some old trainers, except this outfit looks infinitely more happy but feels just as comfortable.

I have another collaboration coming up with UIN and I can't wait to show you that new style, but for the moment, I'm off to finish picking spring flowers to put on our table.

Shopping Info:  Nelumbo Toledo Slipons-$80 from UIN footwear, Pastel Green Cardigan from YeMAK

Breakfast with Ophelia

This morning I am having a cup of coffee with my grandmother.  Not in the body, but in spirit.  Every morning my little granny emerged from her bedroom in her house coat and sleep bonnet and made herself a cup of tea with honey in the same little white speckled brown cup that has an illustration of chives growing out of a barrel on the one side. After she died and the relatives came out of the woodwork to loot and pillage her home, all I managed to sneak out of the carnage to remember her by was an Avon cameo, a black and white photo of her as a teen posing like a Hollywood starlet in her sunhat and shirt tied scandalously in a knot in the front showing her midriff, and a rare, carefree smile on her face, and this cup.  My little grandmother did not have a happy life handed to her, but I believe she knew how to take the most enjoyment from the simplest of pleasures, like lounging in the kitchen with her cup of tea while reading the paper before the real work of each day began.  

Yes, my grandmother's life wasn't exactly happy and definitely wasn't easy.  I won't go into the details today, but imagine Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, if she hadn't succumbed to her grief.  Imagine if Ophelia had just kept getting up everyday.  She might be slower to laugh, often silent and stoic, but kind and wise for having survived her sadness, and so very skilled at taking joy from even the smallest of things and learning to treasure it.   That's how we survive grief and hardship after all, by learning to see beauty in the world around us and take what we can of it into our hearts.

This morning I am taking a cue from my grandmother as I sit here in my stars and moon robe from 1998, fingers wrapped around her chives coffee cup, with a million things staring me down from the to-do list above my desk.  I have decided to put on some music, take a few deep breaths and just enjoy my coffee for a while.  At the present moment, my life is overflowing with daily busyness.  I have been prepared to fall apart, but instead have surprised myself with being able to handle it all.  I've done with a measure of grace and humility, apologizing frequently for mistakes made from tiredness or absentmindedness, but continued to press on the best I can and I think I'm making it work.  Is it perfect?  No.  Do I love this?  No, again.  Will it always be like this?  I truly hope not.  Can I make it?  Apparently, yes.  So, I keep going and as often as possible I pause and enjoy the smallest of pleasures as though they're part of a practically perfect life.

Shopping Info:  Ophelia Dress in Black Illuminated-$232 from SamanthaPleet.com

Spring Beginnings

Each spring, I am blessed with the memories of having my first child, of driving to the hospital just after dawn on a stormy spring morning, seeing jonquils blooming by the roadside and newborn lambs testing out their wobbly legs.  Spring isn't just the beginning of new life, it marks the beginning of a new life that forever changed mine.

I'm a realist to my core, and even when I was very young, I knew there was a chance I would never marry or have children; it just doesn't happen for everyone.  There were times, years in fact, when I felt certain that love was just not for me, so from the very first moment that I found out I was going to be a mother, I was ecstatic.  I feel head over heels in love with both my children before I ever saw them.  From the very first moment, I knew there was a unique, complete, and worthy being entrusted to my care and that no job, hobby, or relationship would ever measure up to this high calling.

My beautiful girl, made it so easy to walk away from everything else that people desperately try to derive meaning from and find out in the end meant nothing at all, and give all my love and effort and strength and care to the only thing that truly matters in this life--family.  I gave my all first to her and then to her sister.  Because even though I thought was giving her my all, turns out I had even more to give and we gladly welcomed another member to out family when her sister arrived.

And, so this spring, as my daughter turns 18 and prepares to go out into the world and find the wind that fills her sails, I look at all the new life and imagine with hopefulness what awaits my precious girl in her new life, and I look back on all our years together with a full and thankful heart. 

Shopping Info: Dress from KarinaDresses.com, heels by Bettie Page

Giverny by Selkie

Selkie's Monet inspired Giverny collection is now available!

 

Glorious Sparkles Forever

I have a lot of clothes; please try to contain your shock and surprise.  I have a large amount of clothes even after I spent a year or two meticulously going through everything and getting rid of things I didn't love.  But because they have all been so carefully curated that I have trouble parting with anything because basically everything is my favorite.

With very few exceptions, I don't regret giving anything away, but I did nearly part with this beautiful skirt.  I am so glad I had second thoughts because I've gotten so much joy and wear out of this skirt, I'm glad I rethought my decision and kept it.  I've had this skirt since the height of the Printed Midi phase about seven years ago and I've made so many different outfits from it, I can't believe I ever nearly let it go.

 

Great pieces of clothing make us feel amazing no matter what age of size we are, bring us joy for many years, and have loads of possibilities for ways we can wear them.  Since the spring season is finally here and this is the time when people traditionally clean out their homes and their closet, I want to encourage you to go through you wardrobe and carefully consider each piece.  If you don't love them, let them go.  If you're on the fence at all, it's ok to take some time to think it over.  And when you have nothing but items you love in your closet, spend some time falling in love with them all over again as you create new ways to wear them. 

The Moment After

Boxing champ Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until they get hit."  How true.  Mike Tyson's a bit of an oddity, getting hit in the head a lot will do that to a person, and I don't defend him on a personal level, but when it comes to this, he's spot on.  

This statement is especially apparent when you're the one who's just been hit and you sit there in a daze, gasping, while all these faces are circling overhead saying, "you know what you should have done," and "I'll tell you what I would have done," and the worst and most ignorant statement of all, "I would never have let this happen to me."  We all love to think that if we were in a bad spot we'd know exactly how to react, but the simple fact is that until you're in that moment, the moment after the hit, you really don't know what you'll do.  

When that moment comes, and it surely does come to all of us at some time and in some way, you might surprise yourself by reacting the right way, by having a plan and sticking to it, but more often than not, bad things blindside us and we're so busy reeling, we don't do what we always thought we would.

Quite frankly, the idea that we can in some way protect ourselves from all the painful things in life is a fantasy.  While it's true that some bad things happen because we fail to plan, more often than not, the worst tragedies and calamities are random, set in motion by forces beyond our control and well outside our knowledge and consent.  That's just life.  Sometimes you're riding high, sometimes you're picking yourself up out of the dirt, and sometimes you don't get up at all.  When it happens, whatever it is that we fear and dread and hope we'd be smart enough to avoid, when we get hit, sometimes we find we're not nearly as tough as we thought we were.  Sometimes we find we are stronger than we could ever have imagined.  And you won't really know until you've been hit.

As someone who's been on both sides of that fence, let me say this:  If you've never been through it, please keep your stupid mouth shut about what you would have done, especially if no one asked.  Be humble, pray you don't actually have to find out what you would do in that situation, and support the person who has been through it.  And if you have been through it, take a minute, breathe, and then try to recover.  You're going to want to ask why, but ultimately, there may not be an answer beyond, "because."  Just get up.  Start moving forward and then keep going, keep working to heal, keep trying.  Life may not ever be the same again, but it will get better with time and hard work.

You thought you had a plan, and then you got hit.  Life was one way and now it's another.  Paradigm shifts often occur at the knuckle end of a sucker punch.  Now is the time when you will really find out what you're made of.  Now is the time when really learn what you can do, what you have to do.  And you will.

Shopping Info:  A Line Pink Floor Length Rhinestone Glitter Prom Dress-$189 from Lunamis

White Eyelet for Spring: Petallush Pt. 4

Today's post is bittersweet because it is another beautiful dress but also the last day in my collaboration with Petallush.  This collaboration has been so much fun that I am hopeful this is not the end but the beginning of many more great posts together.  And don't forget that you can save an extra 10% off your order with my code BLEU10.

Nothing says springtime better than a white eyelet dress.  After all those months of snow, you would think that we'd be tired of white, but set against the bright new greens and flowers, a little white eyelet dress just the perfect way to welcome spring.

I used to be very fearful of wearing white because I do so many messy things in a day, cooking, cleaning, crafting, gardening.  So, I spent years yearning to wear white cotton dresses but denying myself because they would only get stained.  Then I discovered a magical thing called an apron. Suddenly there was no need to fearfully avoid white dresses and the age of spring eyelet began!

I love all the details in this dress, from the lace scallops to the lined fabric, and the flare at the sleeves for maximum movability and comfort.  I'm ready for morning bike rides and picnics in meadows full of daffodils, and more than anything I'm ready for wearing white dresses.  Hello, Spring, I've missed you more than I can say.

Shopping Info: White Short Sleeve Round Neck Rayon Zipper Mini Dress-$43.50 from Petallush.  Save 10% with my code BLEU10.  Aria Flats in Ginger Yellow-$79from VIVAIA.

Boho Florals: Petallush Pt. 3

Take a good look at the woods around me.  This is what spring looks like on the mountain top.  We won't see much green until May when all the growing things have pushed their way through this thick layer of oak leaves.

So, while it may be spring in the rest of the northern hemisphere, it still looks like late autumn up here.  Maybe that's why I had this Rust Floral Dress from Petallush in mind when they asked me to do a collaboration with them.  I know I was also thinking of the longer sleeves being perfect for Valentine's Day, but I also know that this length and color would be perfect with my tall suede boots and a chunky cardigan, hat optional for boho-chicness.

I have been so busy lately that if I don't plan my wardrobe on Sunday night before the week starts, I am totally lost and usually running late each day.  So, I have been dutifully setting aside an hour each Sunday to choose six outfits for the week based on what each day's schedule demands, and believe me when I say that each day is vastly different from the others.  

It's fantastic when I find a beautiful and affordable dress like this one that will work for any occasion or event my day demands.  Casual or dressy, and comfortable regardless, this dress is going right in the front of my closet where I can reach for it all the time.

I have so loved all the dresses I've tried from Petallush and you can try some cute new dress too and save an extra 10% when you use my code BLEU10.  You won't regret sprucing up your wardrobe with these pretty dresses.  Our collaboration continues on Monday with another spring lovely from Petallush.  See you soon!

Shopping Info: Rust 3/4 Length Sleeve Knee Length Floral Dress from Petallush.  Save an extra 10% with my code BLEU10.  Boots from Forever 21.

Spring Dresses with Petallush-Part 2

Look at all this lovely green!  It's finally here, Spring is finally here, and Oh, how I have been waiting!  Not for the awful time change, not for the pollen and subsequent allergies, they're all part for the course, but the things I have been waiting for are the beautiful colors of all the world springing to life again and the beautiful sunshine returning to make it happen.

Since it is getting warmer and ever so much more colorful outside, it is of course time once again for the changing of the garb.  I spent a day putting away all my winter things and getting out all my pretty spring things like this Embroidered Cotton dress from Petallush.

Filled with delicate details, this light cotton dress is just perfect for spring and summer, for errands or events, for going out or staying in.  I've been telling all my friends and family who love dresses as much as me about Petallush, especially because you can save an extra 10% off your purchase with my code BLEU10.

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I am loving this collaboration with Petallush because they love dresses as much as I do and everything they sent is just perfect.

There are two more lovely dresses on the way in this collaboration, but if you're feeling just a little impatient, then checkout my YouTube channel for a full unboxing and review of everything in this haul!

Shopping Info: White Half Sleeve V Neck Cotton Embroidered Midi Dress-$45 from Petallush.com Use code Bleu10 to save 10% off your purchase.