Summer of Sexy Mom

I didn't set an official resolution for 2014, but there was one thing I vowed to change this year.

I want to dress like a mom.

 

Yup - time to bust out the high-waisted Levis and sweaters with kittens on it. :)

What prompted this change? Well, a few things... #1 being that I work with a bunch of young, cute, and stylish women. Another reason was that whenever I drop Bimmer off at daycare, I see how the other snooty moms are dressed and I don't want to be an embarassment to my child. I can never allow myself to be "pajama mom." (Although yoga pants are the closest thing to pajamas I would ever dare wear out of the house anyway. I'm not a total slob!!!)

 

My work clothes are all appropriate and fine and I'm slowly investing in some nice pieces that will stand the test of time. (See a "What I wear to work" post HERE) But in my outside-work world? Yeah, at 32 years old, it's high time I stop wearing jeans and a hoodie all the time.

 

 

 

Nope, it's time to ramp it up a little bit.

 

Now that I've identified and accepted the problem, what was the solution? Well, cue the Mix & Match Mama.

 

 

 

I could dress like that! I want to dress like that! Wait... I already own stuff like that. It's just that I save most of it to wear to work! Yes, since I started working in the real world I have two very distinct sets of clothes... those I wear to work and those that I wear not at work. Dare I cross contaminate? Would wearing "work" clothes be comfortable on the weekends?

 

I decided that yes, some of it could work for me outside the office. The thing I hate most about dressing up for work are the pants and the shoes. So if I could still wear jeans and flat shoes (like ballet flats or my camo Toms) then I could look polished on the weekends too. But there was something else holding me back... I always hated to "dirty" something I could wear to work and didn't want to "waste" it on wearing it on a weekend.

 

**Sidebar: Time to let you in on a little secret. My mom implemented one fashion rule for me at an early age that still sticks with me to this day... you should never wear the same outfit twice within two weeks.**

 

Now that you know that, I think it's time for me to re-evaluate my excuse of not wanting to "waste" my work clothes. If I can't wear them within two weeks of each other anyway, that means I only need to have ten work appropriate shirts. And if you add in the weekends before, during, and after those magical two weeks, that's still only 16 days. And I own WAY more than 16 different shirts. There was absolutely no reason I couldn't start dressing better when I was outside the office. And with us rushing around so much on the weekends, and taking photos of a lot of it, you would think I would want to be remembered as being somewhat polished!!!

 

I did go out and buy one new thing specifically inspired by this promise to myself...

 

 

 

I have always liked the look of a layered shirt under a sweater or other shirts. I had just donated all my old tank tops from college, so it was time to invest in some newer ones that were long enough to layer properly. Old Navy had a few on sale for $7 a pop, so I sprung for three of them. And with comfort being one of my key factors, I am gravitating toward these bottoms these days....

 

 

 

So, hopefully this will stick! Keep tabs on me in photos to come and get on my case if I start backsliding!