I like to take a lot of pictures, so therefore, when I go to an event what I am wearing is captured multiple times. Therefore, I hate to wear the same dress twice! It’s a problem I know, but I always feel like people are looking at me thinking “she totally wore that to the last wedding”! Yes, it is definitely all in my head, and I am pretty positive most people don’t even remember what I wore, but I still swear at least one person would judge. So each formal event I get on the hunt for something new to wear.

Enter the little black dress. I have a ton! As much as I try to venture into color I just always go back to my trusty friend…black. It is slimming and always appropriate. I also always try to rationalize in my head why I need a new dress. I count how many times I can wear it, even though I already know that I will only wear it once. At least I try right?

Even though I hate online shopping , I still search for dresses there. The ladies wearing them in the pictures just look so much better then I do in the dresses! Sometimes you even get to find clothes from Europe like these Evening Dresses at Bank Fashion . I still have no idea how much they really cost due to the Euro price tag, but it’s still fun to look. Sometimes you can even get something very different and unique.

I complain, but I do love to go and try on dresses…that is if I find a bunch I like.  It’s all about the dance….the shopping, the jewelry, the make up the hair….you just hope the end result makes a pretty picture.

How about you? Do you like to wear something new to each formal event? Or do you have that tried and true dress that looks good and does it’s job each time?

When I think of summer clothes I think of anything that’s flowy, light and comfortable. I always think I look best in the summer because I find it easy to just throw on a long maxi dress and be on my way. In the winter my go to is always sweat pants. That is why I was happy to find  Fresh Produce . This site has clothes that are fresh, fun and perfect for summer.

Just picture yourself packing for a beach vacation and that pretty much will sum up the clothes from Fresh Produce….Beach Clothing!  Fresh Produce first sprouted in 1984 in Long Beach, selling silk-screened t-shirts in bright graphics and custom jewelry at the ’84 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the parking lot across the street from the coliseum. From there the company grew, and with the same beachy, leisure theme in the clothes they had back then, Fresh Produce is what it is today. The Fresh Produce story really is an American dream story. Husband and wife start company, other family members join, and now in its third decade, Fresh Produce continues to be primarily Made in the USA and has grown into a $50 million company with one of the most original, refreshing and captivating casual, resort and sportswear lines in America. If that’s not the American dream what is???

I have the outfit shown above and love it. I look at it and just think….walking on the boardwalk at night. Don’t you? The Women’s cardigans and the summer capris are so light and comfortable you just want to wear them every day!

The Soleil Dress ($79) is another summer must have. It comes in a ton of great colors, and fits my style perfectly. Like I said, the maxi dress is a go to outfit for me pretty much every day.

Another thing I like about the Fresh Produce line is that each outfit/piece of clothing comes in so many color options. You can choose from the basic black or white, or you can go bold with beautiful bright colors. The line also can accommodate women of any age. It’s always great to be able to find something for someone who is 20 as well as someone who is 50!

Fresh Produce can be found in Nordstrom, Walt Disney resorts and stores, and over 800 specialty boutiques and resort retailers. Plus, company-owned stores and factory outlets are scattered throughout the country, including exclusive seashore resorts in North America and the Caribbean. Plus of course online.

Overall I was truly impressed with Fresh Produce. The clothes are extremely comfortable and well made. So next time you are shopping for your beach vacation, or for your every day summer look, be sure to check out Fresh Produce. You won’t be sorry.

I was provided with some clothes from Fresh Produce for the Purposes of this review. As always all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Up until now I haven’t really seen the benefits. Most of the time you are left to pay shipping, which I find to be an unnecessary added cost. Sometimes the cost is rather hefty! That is usually the point where I rethink my purchase. I search for items, add them to my cart, and when I am ready to check out I notice the shipping charges and cancel my order. I pretty much do it every time. I should learn by now to not even search unless I have a free coupon code!

How about sizing? I normally have to try on a ton of clothes in the dressing room before I find anything that fits. Especially when it comes to pants or Jeans. How does one buy that stuff online? Shoes? I feel like I need to put them on my feet before buying. Yes, a lot of shoe websites offer free return shipping, but that takes time, and I normally want my shoes right away. I am extremely scared of the online shoe ordering trend.

Even after all the things that scare about online shopping I still tend to browse regularly. I mean take this Knitwear by Pure Collection (yes, I used the word knitwear!)….doesn’t it just look cozy? My biggest guilty shopping pleasure is stuff that I can’t afford on those discount designer sites. Even at the discount things are too much for me, but it’s fun to look!

I do see the benefits, such as saving yourself a lot of time that you don’t have in a store. But how do people not see the negatives? How do you get around the negatives I’ve mentioned? What do you think? Are you an online shopper? Or are you like me, and still find it rather scary….

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Here on Long Island I am never at a loss to find mom’s who continue to try to be trendy no matter what their age. Even if it means trying to dress like her daughter. Yes, sometimes these “older” women hit the nail on the head, and can actually pull it off, but more often than not they look ridiculous. They just look like they are trying too hard. Now I am a mom, and being that I am only 30 years old (ok, almost 31), I think that I can still pull off the trendy look pretty well. But when do the tables turn? When will I become that mom who is “trying to hard” to stay current and in fashion? Is it an age? Is it at a certain weight? Or am I just destined to eventually rock the “mom jeans” and let it all go?

The other day I was at the doctor’s office, and saw this woman who was with her son (probably around 6). She was definitely older than me, and was wearing a short belted dress, her hair long and a hippie styled headband worn around her forehead. Personally, I thought she looked ridiculous. But there I was..a mom…rocking a maxi dress wearing a straw hat. I thought to myself…when will people start looking at me this way? I hope the answer is NEVER!

Then there is the woman who is obviously a mom. You know the look. It’s a woman wearing high waisted khaki’s or jeans with their shirt tucked in, and the zipper being about 9″ long. When does this look become OK? Does this happen to everyone? There has to be a happy medium between wearing jeans where my ass crack hangs out, and jeans that go up to my boobs.

People may not agree, but I think I would rather go the way of the mom jean than be the ridiculous woman wearing clothes that are WAY too young. I don’t stop and notice the women in “mom clothes”, but I do recognize a woman who isn’t 20 years old anymore trying to hard to look like her daughter.

So what do you think? Is there an age where looking through Glamor Magazine to pick out your trendy outfit is no longer appropriate? When do I have to stop shopping at Forever 21? When does a mom start looking like a mom? Thoughts?

A while ago I was watching an Oprah episode that featured Tim Gunn from Project runway, and he was doing make overs. During the show Tim made a comment that really rang true to me. He called it “The Frumpification of America”. He said “If you want to look like you want to be in bed all day then you should stay in bed!” I laughed, and then looked down at myself and cringed. I was wearing sweatpants and an over sized sweatshirt. Am I adding to the frumpification of America???

The answer is YES I AM! What a horrible realization! I did a post a while back about my love for sexy, soft underthings. This post spoke of my love for anything soft and feminine underneath my clothes. But what about the clothes on the outside? Isn’t that important too? I have ZERO excuse as to why I wear comfy sweatpants and sneakers instead of form fitting clothes and high heels. Actually, I take that back…I love to get dressed up, but not to just sit around my house. But what about those housewives of old that used to wear pearls as they cooked?  How about the days (or so I’m told) that people used to get dressed up to go on an air plane? Now, when it’s travel time I throw on the comfiest outfit I have just so I can bear sitting in that uncomfortable seat for a few hours. But what changed that made it ok to dress down?

I think I’m getting ahead of myself here. So I will step back and look at this situation. When do you think it started happening? When did it become ok for a woman to throw on her biggest and baggiest pair of sweatpants, a big ol’ shirt, throw her hair in a messy bun on top of her head and walk out the door? I don’t think you can blame it on being a housewife..I mean women were housewives for years longer then they were in the work force. Look at my grandma…she worked, raised kids, cooked and even had time to wash and iron all her drapery regularly ( I know this because they are hanging in her closet marked with the day they were washed and ironed) To this day the 88 year old woman’s house is cleaner than mine! But she always looked nice. No sweatpants for her!

So I decided to call her…she reminded me that women didn’t even wear pants in those days! So you were pretty much forced to look semi put together in a nice dress with comfortable heels. Maybe the sensible heel needs to come back in fashion? (was it ever in? Or maybe women didn’t care so much) Or maybe it’s the fact that television is such a prominent part of our every day life? Back then there was no sitting in front of the TV. You were up, dressed and being productive all day.  I mean if you were even going to come close to following “The Good Wife’s Guide” that appeared in a 1950′s Housekeeping monthly, you had to be nothing but put together! (ok so the guide is pretty unrealistic, but it WAS published)

I decided to hop around the internet a bit to see what I could find. In my travels I found the site The Retro Housewife. What a fun site! Here she talks about lots of trends over the decades, but I found the fashion portion really interesting. If you click on each decade of fashion you will see how much it changes. I think it all began in the 60′s when it became more acceptable for women to wear pants…Then the 70′s brought women’s liberation and the pants suit…and I think if you want to pinpoint the real downfall you have to blame the 80′s. And the rest as they say…is history.

I get that the fashion they show in magazines is almost unrealistic…I mean am I really supposed to wear a stiletto heel every day like Carrie Bradshaw? But there has to be a happy medium. I am a HUGE offender of the frump, and need to change my ways. So who’s with me? It’s time to unfrump America! What are some of your sweat pant alternatives???

My favorite part of any awards show is the fashion. I always watch the red carpet events, and the show Fashion Police on E! which is aired the day after the event. So today I want to play make believe. Today I want to choose which dresses I would try on if I were a size below zero.

Let’s start with this number on Jennifer Garner. I personally think she is looking TOO skinny these days, but besides that I think this dress looked stunning on her. My squishy belly would look horrible in this, and I would look horrible in that particular color, but remember we are playing make believe!

Wow! Look at this dress on Marion Cotillard from the movie Nine. I find the color to be just stunning! I will take one of these please!

Above photos courtesey of Capital M

Now this dress that Dianna Agron from Glee wore is definitely something I would die to wear. I think it would fit my body type too since my trouble area seems to be my belly.

 (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

I guess if I were to be honest I would say I’d be happy, thrilled, honored ok..those words just don’t describe it…I would feel like a fairytale princess if I got to get dressed up like these stars do!

Now I do want to give a shout out to the men of the Golden Globes who rocked the bow tie. I am a HUGE fan, and think that the bow tie is classic and will never be dated or out of style.

As I started to swoon over these guys in tuxedo’s I realized that Captain Awesome does look pretty darn good in a tux..

So who needs Bradly Cooper or Taylor Lautner? Not me! But I will continue to swoon over those gowns. A girls allowed to dream right? Is it wrong to want to play dress up at 29??

One of my favorite parts of the site is putting together what they call sets. You can look at shirts, pants and shoes and drag and drop them together so you can see how the outfit looks. See..check out this set I made! (I am pretty amateur compared to some featured on the site and in other blogs I follow)

There are some people that are super good at making great sets. Check out these ones that are featured on the site! Couldn’t you just see me in this??

Pretty in Pink. Part II. by Kris_pas_fash featuring Matthew Williamson

So Polyvore is a fun new site for me to play on. Let me know what you think of it!

I know the answer. It’s the fact that the media makes us believe that unless we are a size 0 with a 34 C chest that we should be wearing nothing but a cover up when at the beach. The less skin the better. What happened to the days of Marilyn Monroe? When a size 12 was the average pin up model’s size, and curves were sexy? I keep telling myself that fashion is going to go back to that…but so far…nothing!

I myself would not be considered a “big” girl, and I have to admit I can’t get myself to wear a string bikini. Last summer was the first summer in a long time I rocked the bikini. Before that I felt my stomach was flabby and wore the trusty tankini. This year I tried to be brave and bought a very nice red string bikini. I thought my husband would love it. I tried it on in the store. I was very self conscious but I wasn’t sure if I was being silly…or if I really looked awful. So I bought it and brought it home to show my husband. I told him to be honest…and to tell me if I looked fat. Well that was mistake number one because his response was that there was no way he would ever tell me I looked fat in it. He said no matter what he was telling me I looked good…I guess that is sweet of him, but I really wanted an honest answer (I think, although I guess it could’ve been a trap) In the end he said he thought I looked great…but since he prefaced the conversation with the fact that he would tell me that no matter what I had to go with my gut…I just wasn’t comfortable. I was in no way sexy enough to rock that particular bikini…so I returned it.

I gotta admit though, that my favorite bikinis are from Victoria’s Secret.  Although they are expensive early on in the year they run great sales. Like now, if you go to their site  you will find many of their suits to be less than those at Target or Khols. Plus, I find their bottoms don’t cut into my belly. Also, they sell suits mostly by bra and pantie size so you can order online and get a great fit!

So ladies, I think it’s time we look at ourselves in the mirror and feel sexy. Buy one sexy bikini that you normally wouldn’t wear around your friends and wear it on vacation. If anything just so you can feel good and get a great tan in the areas that normally don’t see the light of day. Say Screw You fashion magazines! Real women wear bikinis too!

So I decided it was time to pick my pattern. I decided to go with Jave Blue. As you can see in the picture it was a mixture of blues, browns and blacks. I also always thought the bags were expensive for what they were, but that doesn’t always stop me (although it should).  So to start off my set I decided to buy myself the tote bag. I figured it was perfect to carry my wedding binder in. (man do I miss carrying around that tote everywhere). I then registered  for the carry on bag for my honeymoon. (Hey why not? A registry is a wish list right?) My mother in law got me that and my set was on it’s way! For Christmas I got the wallet from “santa”. It’s a perfect wallet. It holds a ton! And I certainly need a wallet to hold a ton…I mean where else will I keep all my store cards and gift cards let alone credit and debit cards? As a matter of fact I also got a little card holder that attaches to my purse to hold the store cards that I use less often. There just has to be a better system for the stores to use! But I digress..  My most recent purchase was the stationary. Mind you, I found buying it in the store a bit overpriced. I believe it’s $30, but I got mine at Century 21 on sale for $6.99! SOLD! Now when I write little notes to people they will get to enjoy the beautiful Java Blue stationary!

I have no where close to the amount of pieces my sister has. She is a better collector then me. I still have a hard time paying the higher cost of some items. The bummer is that sometimes they decide to retire patterns which is what they did to the Cambridge pattern. So far my Java Blue is still in production but I guess it’s only a matter of time.

I decided to start my mom on the Vera Bradley trend. She is a substitute teacher and I thought a tote would be perfect for her to carry stuff to her classroom. I went with the Kensington Pattern since it was both black and brown. I figure it can go with most any outfit she decides to wear. The purchase was a success. She loved the pattern and uses it for school.

So now the women of my family can proudly say we are fans of Vera Bradley products. And I am certainly happy to add this to The Diaper Diaries Things I Love Thursday!

I figure there has to be a happy medium between the very small wallet purses and the very large hobo type purses. With a large purse comes a very large mess. I tend to drop everything and anything into my purse. Then it gets lost in the black hole until it becomes so ridiculous to find anything in there that I have to clean the bag out. On any given day I am normally carrying…2 pairs of sunglasses in their cases, my wallet, a smaller wallet that just holds the stupid store cards, 2 check books, a small cosmetic case, gum, coupons, tissues, pens…and god knows what else. I must admit that it is convenient to have everything on hand at a moments notice, but I also must admit how freeing it is in the evenings when I switch to a clutch to go out. I carry some money, my ID, Credit card, cell phone and a lipstick…and it’s wonderful.

Now us women are used to carrying it all with us on a daily basis…what happens when the powers that be decide that it is no longer “in fashion” to carry the large bags? Next thing we know they will start getting smaller again, and in order to keep up will will be forced to purge our bags…It will happen again. It’s all a cycle and I think this large bag cycle has been hanging on for a while now. It’s only a matter of time before I will be that mom carrying the large bag with my kids are laughing at how uncool I am…I guess that would be KHARMA!