Moms Need Accessories

So we are in Chicago this weekend (American Girl trip for my oldest, and visiting our best friends). Fabulous trip. In my efforts to pack appropriately I surveyed everything I had initially laid out to see what should be packed and what could be left. I having the genetic material that causes me to pack half a wardrobe for a three day trip, I find it most effective to lay things out first to try and visualize the outfits, fill in gaps and weed out extraneous pieces. As I reviewed my choices, I realized that accessories were just as important, if not more important, than the actual clothes themselves. A plain black shirt dress is just a dress, but add a striped scarf and bright pair of ballet flats and you have a modern mom's weekend on the go outfit. This is perfectly appropriate for grocery shopping, running errands, lunch with friends and even a casual dinner with your lovely family. Pair it with a few long necklaces, heels, or peep toe patent leather embellished wedges and it's perfect for a night on the town. Same thing with jeans. The right shoes and jewelry can help you go from looking like a mom, to a stylish woman with kids. Slight linguistic distinction, huge practical difference. Throwing on a scarf and a cute pair of flats does the same thing for me that my manicures do. It makes me feel put together and like I still have a sense of myself, while being a mom at the same time. I feel better, I look better, and I carry myself with more confidence. I'm not saying to wear three inch heels while grocery shopping. I'm just saying that taking five extra minutes to add a little splash of style to an otherwise basic outfit can make a world of difference in how you look and feel!

Mother's Day

Ok, to all you mom's out there....I know you have been looking online here and there or admiring some bag or piece of jewelry when you are running around buying for everyone else. So here's your chance to chime in, mom to mom. What would you LOVE for Mother's Day this year???

My Favorite Manicure

Ok, so true to my blog title I feel I should comment on my inspiration....my manicures! Right now I am sporting the new Shellac Manicure, or 14 day manicure, as some salons are calling it. It looks like regular polish, isn't thick like gels, but it stays on for 14 DAYS!! This is the second one I have had, and I just love it. I have french now, and even though I keep my nails really short because of work and everything I do at home, it still looks great. I have to change my regular polish about twice a week because of chipping, so this saves me a lot of time (later blog will explain how a busy mom can find time to do a bi-weekly manicure and the products I use to make it flawless, quick, and durable). A few pointers for those who may try this fabulous manicure:

1. Call around. There seems to be a pretty wide variance in the price of these manicures from salon to salon. I got the manicure last Thursday at a fairly well known nail salon on the East side and paid $46. It would have been $40, but I paid an extra $6 for the french, which is fairly normal. My sister went to THE SAME nail salon on the West side the next day and paid only $25 for the very same manicure (minus the french, so with the french it would have been $31). The person who did her nails gave her the option of adding a hand massage and lotion application, or not. Since she said no, the charge was only $25. He explained to her that a lot of times the technicians don't explain this to their clients, but he does because he wants them to continue to come back by making it affordable. Bottom line, shop around and ask questions. For $25 this is a great treat a couple of times a month. They look great, and don't look fake at all!!

2. Maintenance. Being the manicure connoisseur that I am, I have done a little reading on this. Make sure you have a good moisturizer or cuticle oil to put on you fingers when you have this manicure done, as it can draw moisture out of your cuticles and make them dry. Otherwise they are totally maintenance free for at least 2 weeks.

3. OOPS. So yesterday I was reaching in our bathroom cabinet for something and knocked over, what else, but a bottle of nail polish. Of course it fell and shattered on the cabinet floor, leaving me to clean it up before it was tracked all over the house. Even though I was really careful, of course I still got some bright pink polish on my neatly manicured nails. Secret: only acetone based polish remover will take off the Shellac manicure, so all I had to do was take some non-aceteone polish remover and a Q-tip and touched up the areas that were stained with the pink polish. Good as new.

4. Color Selection. There are currently about 25 colors of this polish, including the french option. There are a wide variety, but if you are into bright blues, or grays (my favorite polish choice over the winter months) you are going to be out of luck here. Otherwise they have a nice selection of neutrals, pinks, reds, and dark burgundy.

So that was my first official post about my manicures. Again, it reminds me that I'm not just a mom, I'm still a person and I still have style. That makes me a better mom.

My Story

So about a year ago I took cupcakes into work, and one of my lovely co-workers, upon tasting my cupcakes, said, "Your hair is always perfect, your nails are always done, your kids are always neat, and these cupcakes!!!! Is there anything you aren't good at?" . Hmmmm.....let me think....YES!! I'm a mom, just like a million other moms out there who are struggling to get through every day in one piece! But her question made me think. Evidently, I must be doing ok. Even if I feel like I am coming apart at the seams after a long day at work and a sometimes longer evening with my lovely children I must come off to others like I have things under control. And isn't that really what we all want? We, as moms, all have a laundry list of things that we wish we could have done a little better, chores that are 3 days late getting done, birthday parties we should have started planning a month ago instead of a week ago, more patience we wish we would have had while helping our kids with homework, ect. Now, the majority of us are realistic enough to know that we are never going to be perfect (those of you who don't subscribe to this school of thought must have some fairy godmother that I have yet to be introduced to). But even in our own acceptance of our shortcomings, we still want everyone ELSE to thing that we have it all figured out! We want our friends, kids' teachers, mother-in-laws, and neighbors to think to themselves, "Wow, she has got it together, and she looks good doing it!". So here I am, giving you the tools I use, good and bad, that help me look like I've got it together (at least in the eyes of my cupcake-loving co-worker). Enjoy my stories, my favorite products, favorite websites, and recipes that make you look like you slaved in the kitchen all day even though you didn't. And, please, by all means, share the same things with me! We are all mom's striving to get through the day and look good doing it! Part of looking good is feeling good and finding that one thing that you can do for yourself that makes you feel like you are on top of things. For me, its manicures. Making sure my nails are done, whether I sit down with a bottle of polish or I splurge and treat myself to a professional manicure, I feel better and feel like I look more together when my manicure is nice and neat. Everyone should have that thing that does that for them. It will make you a better mom when you feel good about yourself. It took me a long time to figure that out, but I'm a better mom because of my manicures :)