What Are You Wearing New Year's Eve: #3 Vintage-y

A cheerful print is always fun to wear.  This one always puts me in a good mood when I slip it on.  Right now though,  I can't decide if it's better with or without tights.

Nicole by Nicole Miller dress, Oh, Deer! Slingbacks

What Are You Wearing New Year's Eve: #2 Sleek.

  I think taking the opportunity to show a little skin on New Year's is a natural reaction to being all covered due to all the cold weather we've had the last few months (although no snow, much to my son's chagrin).

  So, here are my two takes on the "hot mama" look.  Imagine you are on Sesame Street, and I can tell you the following:  These looks were brought to you by the letters "R" for Running and "S" for Spanx, and also by the letter "H" for Holding my breath...

Plenty by Tracy Reese dress and Steven booties

A BP dress I bought 10 years ago and Oh, Deer! peep-toes

These are one of my favorite pairs of shoes ever.  Maybe because I waited a long time to get them?

The Hide & Sleek Hi-Rise Body Smoother from Spanx that I am wearing in these pictures:

 

What Are You Wearing New Year's Eve: #1 Modern

 Usually I build my outfits by starting with the shoes.  Sometime last year I became pretty enamored with crinkled leather.  The crinkled leather, plus the fact that they are a shiny, shiny gold color make these shoes from J. Crew just irresistable to me.  

 So after deciding that these shoes needed to be showcased, this is the first option I came up with for New Year's Eve: 

Forever 21 blazer and tank, Xhiliration mini skirt, Spanx Birds-eye tights, J. Crew heels

Merry Christmas!!!

  To all the readers of Mother of Style, I hope all your Christmas wishes come true!!

 Thank you for visiting my blog and making it fun to have readers to share my love of fashion with- don't be shy, I love to see your comments and thoughts on the things I post!

 After Christmas I will be coming back with my ideas for New Year's Eve fashion :). 

 In the meantime, check out the website for Lauren Bishop, the fashion illustrator responsible for the beautiful Christmas girl below:

I wish I had artistic talent like this!

My Favorite Commercial of the Season: Target's Santa

Braving the Christmas Crowds

Almost ready for Christmas, but as usual there are a few odds and ends to wrap up, like finding a present for my grandfather. It is hard to shop for him.  He loves Elvis, but he has practically everything Elvis out there already- wish me luck!

J Crew cardigan, Gap T-shirt, scarf from India, Paige jeans, Steven ballet flats

Clarins Multi-Active Day Cream Review

  Wrinkles may be inevitable, but I want to get as few as possible.   I drink lots of water, I try to keep my face clean, I have an assortment of lotions and anti-wrinkle potions in my bathroom and I use sunscreen with a high SPF everyday.  I don't know how much good any of this is going to do for me, but I stick with it because it's all I can do.  There's always a little comfort to be taken in the knowledge that you did all you could, right?

  I have my core brands that I stick with, but I'm not opposed to trying something new, in this case the Clarins Multi-Active Day Cream.  I love it!  It has a nice light texture without being too runny, and my skin  feels so alive after I apply it. It kinda smells like AquaNet hairspray, but I can overlook that because I like how it feels and the ingredients are intriguing to me:  it has antioxidants and a plant extract from Madagascar that's supposed to support your dermal repair function.  Who knows if it's all necessary, but it sounds interesting! 

  The biggest downside to it that I see is the lack of SPF.  Almost all day creams have that component now, so I see that as something that would keep me from continuing to use it for daytime moisturizer.  I'm not interested in applying a second cream to get my sun protection.  So I might switch to the night cream formula, after I finish my current night creams because I really did like my first exposure to using Clarins.

Redefining "Mom Jeans" with Spanx

  I pretty much live in my jeans.  They go with everything, they're flattering and always comfortable.  The only hitch in my love affair with denim is right above the waistband.  Most of my jeans are okay, but I've got a couple of issues with the fit of some jeans I own not because I'm fat or wearing the wrong size, but because I've had kids and pregnancy changes your body no matter how much exercise you do.  I know some people opt for tummy tucks or liposuction, but that's just not for me.  I don't want to surgically alter my body. Instead I have experimented and found that there are shapewear solutions out there.

  I have a Spanx Hide & Sleek cami that I like, and a Fantastic Firmer cami from the lower-priced Assets line with adjustable straps that I can wear under tops and sweaters.  Another idea is to approach the problem from the waist-down.  There are two panties that I found to work really well for me and are easy to use on a regular basis:

Slim Cognito Seamless Control Panty 

This panty has a nice, wide waistband that stays in place, and the back is woven in such a way that it helps shape your buns at the same time.  All mothers can appreciate multi-tasking when we see it, since we are adept at it ourselves!

                        

 

              

Hide & Sleek Panty

These are my favorite, because they feel the closest to regular panties but still give that extra oompf to flatten around the waistline.