Showing posts with label boy fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boy fashion. Show all posts

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Q & A Time


From time to time, I'll run into someone who'll say "I love your blog!"  or maybe they don't actually love it and they say "I read your blog!"  Haha.  And then they usually follow it up with a question.  Sometimes those questions are specific post related and some are more general.  So I've decided to do a little Q & A session.  I'll answer the most frequented questions here in this post.  I'm sure I'll do more of these in the future, so if you have a question that I didn't address here, please feel free to ask me.  You may not be the only person wondering :) So let's get on with it...

The most frequent question is:


Have you ever thought about being a writer/journalist?
The answer is YES :)  In fact, when I was in college at UT, I met with an advisor each semester in business school to select my next courses.  I was having a hard time deciding which area of business school I wanted to specialize in.  He looked at my transcript and said "Your best grades are in literature or English-based courses.  Are you sure you want to do business?"  But I was three years in and determined to go with an "all-purpose" degree like Marketing.  There's no money in English-based careers, I thought.  Goofy.  I know.  
But - I do love to write.  It's a way of decompressing for me.  I would love to get paid to write though.  People have said "oh you need to write a book!"  That's so flattering, but I'm not sure that I could be a novelist at this point in my life.  Most of the stories floating around in my head are more like episodes than novels.  I would actually LOVE to write in a weekly column for a newspaper or magazine (and I have a pretty awesome idea for a column too).  Here's a confession - I googled the editor of our local newspaper and wrote her name and email down.  It's tucked safely in my wallet because I haven't gotten up the nerve to email her yet.  Maybe someday I'll work up the nerve.



Where do you find the time to blog?
Well it's probably easier for me because I do truly love to write, thus I MAKE time for it; but it's still tough to chisel in a time block.  The "save" button is my friend.  Just at this point in this post alone, I've been interrupted about 6 times.  I'll start a post just to get my thoughts down, and then I'll save it and come back to it later.  Most of the time that I'm in front of the computer is during my lunch (a plus for working so close to home!) or after the boys are in bed.  On days like today (Sunday) when everyone is at home, I'll steal away for a few minutes at a time while daddy is entertaining the boys to get a post in.  But let's just say this - there is no blogging when it's just me and the boys!  What is it about a shiny computer with lots of buttons that makes all of their toys look so boring??  If I get the computer out, the boys drop what they're doing and hover.  They fight for who's going to get in my lap first and then push every.single.button on the keyboard.  WHY??  HELLO!!  THIS COMPUTER COST MORE THAN YOU DID!!
(And yes, I realize I could simply teach them not to touch the computer, but crap... I have to teach them so much already....)



It's so hard to find cute boy clothes - where do you buy your boys' clothes?
I agree!!  It is very hard to find boy clothes that aren't covered in puppies and dump trucks.  We do own a few dump truck tees (thanks Target!), but I try to limit them.  The sad part is, when you do find handsome boy clothes, you have to pay crazy prices!  
For jeans or pants, I love The Gap.  They can be expensive, but they usually do a buy one, get one half off jeans sale that I try to take advantage of.  For matching or coordinating outfits, I like Gymboree or Crazy 8 (see pic above).  They offer several different shirts and sweaters in the same color combos, which make it a breeze to coordinate.  My very favorite lines for the ultimate stylish little dude are Crewcuts and Mini Boden.  Those lines are very pricey (at least for my small-town budget) so I sign up for their emails and try to take advantage of their deals.  Crewcuts especially makes it easy - they will mark their "sale" items down an additional 30%, making their items within the same price range as Gap or Gymboree.  The items are generally still in season too!  Another great thing about any of these brands are their wearability and resale values.  I tend to spend more $ on Will's clothes, because I hope to pass them on to Brooks.  These items will also bring more in when I resale them two years from now at consignment.
For shoes, we often visit our favorite mom-and-pop shoe store Coggins Shoes for Kids in Roswell.  But if I can't make the 40 minute drive work, I order online from Piperlime.  Great customer service, free shipping and free returns!


These are just a few of the questions that I get the most often.  There are plenty more that I will save for another post.  PLUS - I have Desperate Housewives to attend to ;)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

UGH! Little boy clothing is for the birds!

Okay, I will preface this post by saying that this is a huge pet peeve of mine.  I get so frustrated at the turn of each season because most children's clothing companies produce nothing but cheesy and down-right ugly choices for little boys!  I mean - are our boys not allowed to be stylish?  Are they always meant to be wearing a cartoon character playing basketball? NO!  I refuse to except that.  I wish I were talented enough to design little boy's clothing, but I'm not so there's no need to dwell on that :(  In the mean time, I have in many ways come to enjoy the "thrill of the hunt" in finding decent boy clothing.

*By no means am I implying that my boys always look picture perfect - I realize they do not.  They spend the majority of their days on their grandparent's farm enjoying the great outdoors.  They wear a lot of play clothes that are hand-me-downs or from Target or the like.  However, on the rare occasion that we go out, I  attempt to dress them nicely :)

BACK TO MY RANT - why do clothing manufacturers think that every little boy must be wearing a truck, a puppy or some sort of sporting equipment on their chest?  WHY do they think I want my 12 month-old wearing a shirt that says "lock up your daughters"??  

Let's look at a few examples -
Now I generally adore Baby Gap - but WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?


Baby Gap again, sigh.... they ruined a good pair of shorts that could be worn with anything, with a bright red number stamped on the front.  Does that add to the look of the shorts?  NOPE.

From Gymboree. The color alone makes me want to gag.  Not to mention the ginormous sail boat that takes up the entire left side of this shirt.


But enough with the negative, lets move on to the things that I do love.  I am completely the opposite of most women (not that you are surprised!) in that I am not crazy about "baby" clothes.   I really like the "big boy"  or little man style of clothing.  Because of this, most of the things I find that I am crazy about are for Will (sizes 2T and up).  I have a much more difficult time finding things for Brooks that are not covered in puppies or monkeys.

Things that I love for Spring -

This awesomeness is from JCrew's CrewCuts.  LOVE CrewCuts.  I think this would look super cute with black or distressed jeans.

This is also from CrewCuts.  Simple.  No brand name on the front of the shirt.  Goes with anything.  Love it.


This is a super cute Spring jacket from CrewCuts.  I also really like the neon yellow one.

Baby Gap redeems itself a little here.  I like the retro feel of this shirt.  Unlike CrewCuts, Baby Gap offers looks like this in smaller sizes like 12-18 months all the way up to 5T.  This is great for coordinating outfits between my boys.

I love these little outfits from Mini Boden for Brooks.  They also offer these styles in Will's size, but they seem a little too "baby" for my big boy :)

We have another family session with Karen Baker coming up at the end of March. This will be Brooks' one year portraits and Will's three year. I'm already brainstorming outfits for my boys.  (On a side note - I love dressing my boys, but absolutely loathe dressing myself, so if anyone out there wants to do that for me, hit me up!!) I'm still playing around with ideas, but I am really digging this outfit for Will - 

 Purple gingham from CrewCuts.

 Skinny dark jeans from CrewCuts.

 How stinkin' awesome is this?  Fedora from Baby Gap.

Keep an eye out for our pictures from Karen in a few weeks.  If my boys are wearing puppies and dump trucks, you'll know I'm sick.