Stitch Fix: Box 2

While waiting for my Tog+Porter box to arrive, I did some Google searches to find out what other clients received. I found many great posts with one or two photos of cute items...making me so incredibly excited I just couldn't wait! In my searches I found StitchFix This styling service charges $20 and sends you a box of items in your size. This service appears to be monthly but there isn't a recurring charge--you just "get my Fix" by requesting a box. You are out your $20 but it is applied as credit toward the purchase of the items you were sent. They also give you 25% off if you buy all 5 items. This can work out to be an awesome deal if you like your items!

When I first signed up I was put on a waiting list. This didn't last too long, maybe a day or two, and then I got my "invite". I completed a brief survey of what I was looking for- complete with comparison photos of different looks to like or dislike. Then my box was shipped! Super fast...mostly automated.

My first box was full of....strange pieces. I tried them on, took some bad photos with my phone and sent it all back. I emailed my stylist to ask some questions before sending the box back. There was one dress that I really liked but I wasn't sure if I needed a smaller size or if the cut was supposed to look the way that it did. I have yet to receive a response...so I mailed my items back in a prepaid labeled pouch.

I requested my second box and just received it. I had my husband take photos...for fun. There was not a single piece in this box that I would even walk out of the house in. I am totally not confident in StitchFix's interest in actually matching me with the right look. I'm a little addicted so I am going to try ONE more time. I really want it to work out. I have seen many videos/blogs of women who get pieces that I would wear. This box...was comical. Feel free to have a laugh at me in my "fetish jumper" as my husband calls it. And yes, I realize you can see my bra through the shirt...oops.

Be sure to tell me what you think! For your entertainment...

Outfit One: Fluxus Zora Scoop Jersey Sleeveless top $60, Frenzii Leonie Jersey short skirt $44. The fabrics were nice...very soft. The shirt was cut funny for me and the skirt was just too short and reminded me of wearing an over-sized men's shirt. Not my style but this was the best out of the box for me.

Outfit One

Outfit One

Outfit Two: Same skirt as above (I have nothing in my closet to go with this rowdy piece). Um..wow. That is pretty ugly. I'm not sure I am cool enough to pull it off. Aryn K Della Cutout Back Tribal Tank $55. 

Outfit Two

Outfit Two

 Outfit Three: The "Fetish jumper", as we call it around the house. DV by Dolce Vita Piper Button Down Romper $121OK so I will be honest- it doesn't look as awful in photos as it does in person- and well, I am not sure I could walk around in this and not giggle hysterically. I definitely think it would look super hot on the right person...but I am not the right person.

Third Outfit

Third Outfit

Outfit Four: Lucca Coutour Tilda Hi-lo Racerback dress $102. There are so many weird things about this dress. It looks harmless on. It has a nasty polyester feel to the outer layer- like my grandma's head scarves. Then inside it has a soft jersey gray liner...like my work out shirts and then an industrial strength zipper in the back. Just weird...and pointless...someone with serious fashion sense probably understands this piece and will hate me for my critique...but hey...I'm a mom looking for some sensible clothes!

Outfit Four-the jersey

Outfit Four

Outfit Four

Tog+Porter: First Box!

Somehow the genetic code for putting an outfit together escaped me. No really...if ever you have seen me and thought that I looked fashionable or at least put together...I promise you that was an accident or...pure luck??? A few months ago I reached my "pre pregnancy" weight and then lost a few more pounds. I mostly blame the children (lovingly blame them) for this accident. Sadly, I sold all of my favorite "skinny" clothes wayyyy back thinking that I would never, ever be "that small" again. Oh well...they were probably too flashy for my new mom style anyway.

For months now my husband and I have been trying to find ways for me to not only shop but also BUY something! I truly have an empty closet. Lots of people say they have "no clothes" but I'm not generalizing. I have nothing but a few ribbed tank tops and some summer nursing shirts. I'll gladly wear those, but my husband is not so keen on me wearing a ribbed tank top with a yoga skirt to a nice restaurant. Oops, another fashion don't for me. 

Enter Tog+Porter. Long story short- but I basically found this amazing service when I read about Eco Emi, a natural product sample box subscription. At first, I didn't think there was any reason someone like me would use such a service because that would mean buying clothes that were not on a clearance rack at Target. However, after 3 attempts at making my clearance finds into outfits I decided that being frugal just wasn't working. If I kept all my cheap clothes, I would fill the hole in my closet but I still would not have anything to wear. There is just something about paying for a cute shirt that costs $39. I mean, if I did take that shirt home, what would I wear it with? That $39 shirt would turn into a $90 pair of pants and an expensive pair of shoes...would it not? Yeah...that wasn't going to work for me...and besides, I can't even spend an hour in the store trying on clothes if I wanted to.

What is Tog+Porter? Well, other than the best service a mom could dream of...it is a styling service. I completed a survey of my preferences, submitted my credit card information (for a deposit of $110) and waited. It was pretty soon afterwards that I was contacted by a stylist. We scheduled a Skype appointment and she really grilled me on my preferences and my empty closet. A few weeks later and my first box arrived! Now the rest of the skinny on the service- I get to buy any of the pieces that I like and send back (with prepaid label) anything I don't. I will meet with my stylist tonight to go over my box and get more styling help. I'll let you know how that goes.

On to the fun stuff....here are the NINE pieces found in my box. I must say, she did a fantastic job finding pieces that fit my style.

**One thing I will point out...obviously I could spend lots of time finding the pieces I want to buy online and probably for less. However, the styling service is free, so I feel like it is fair to purchase the pieces directly from Tog+Porter and then track down the designers to find more items...so wait...not only do I get some great pieces but I also learn of new designers that fit my style...nice.

**Other fact- while some of the pieces may cost more than I would *like* to spend...I have spent so much time, cumulatively, shopping and buying NOTHING that I love. So..to me, it is worth it to spend a bit more per piece. Before kids, I didn't think twice about buying a $59 shirt in every color at my favorite store...so why are things any different now?

Outfit One

Outfit One: DownEast Cap sleeve tee $29, Alternate Apparel Indio Skirt- Indian Wells $53 and Sam Edelman Gigi Almond Patent Sandals $49. The fabrics in this outfit are right up my alley. The sandals are cute but the style doesn't really stay on my foot real well. So far, I think I'm keeping the shirt and skirt and I'm going to DownEast's website to buy a few more of the shirts in other colors.

Outfit Two

Outfit two: Alternative Apparel Racerback Maxi Dress- Eco Rust $59. I LOVE this dress, the fabric and the fact that it is fairly eco-friendly. It feels like NOTHING. My husband says, "Absolutely not" on the color. I think it looks OK in photos. I'm going to see what my stylist thinks...but I have already scoped it out in a plum, a greenish and a gray online...so I think I may be sending the rust back but picking up a color that is better for me. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dress on. I don't care if you don't think it is flattering...I feel naked and wonderful in it and that is all that matters.

Outfit Three

Outfit Three

Outfit Three

Outfit three: Potters Hi Low Button Down shirt $59, Splended V-neck t-shirt $49 and Level 99 Lily Straight Wheat capri/pants $98. Um no...to all three pieces in this outfit. I just threw those shoes on for fun...sorry if I ruined the outfit with them (Fashion illiterate, remember). The photo makes it look like a decent outfit but the pants have so much room and are so stretchy that I could put a couch pillow in the front and the back and you can actually see the extra room when I walk. I'm not a fan of the hi/low shirt- plus it made me hot just putting it on. The t-shirt isn't a good cut for me either. Bummer...but it was fun to try on!

Outfit Four

Outfit four: Downeast Maxi Skirt $49 I think this is a skirt and a strapless dress...if not...oops. It has bunching so I think it can be worn as a dress. I like this one but I'm not so sure on the fabric. It feels a little too much like swim suit material...and I just think that will be hot. I'll be asking my stylist if this is "fancy" or can be fancy because I may keep it for special occasions. It looks fancier in the photo but I think it seems more casual fabric-wise in person. Again...those shoes are totally not right for the dress but I have had them for years.

Outfit Five

Outfit five: Downeast Two Tone Skirt- Spa Blue $49. (My own organic shirt...I have no other white shirts...and those stink in' black shoes again!). LOVE this skirt. I love the blue plus gray and white. I can't wait to find out what type of shirt to put with this skirt! Definitely keeping this one. Perfect length, nice airy fabric...LOVE the skirt.

OK so tell me what you think- be honest!

Smarterer Bzz Campaign

I love BzzAgent...I really do. I think work of mouth marketing is THE way to go. I prefer to try new products that people I know (even if it is just a blogger I "know") have tried. If I like a person's style I am likely to find their opinion to be spot on with my own.

I recently jointed a BzzCampaign for Smarterer...essentially a quiz website. It was fun the first time I took the quiz but that was about all. I think I'm too old to care what my status is for taking quizzes... but I could see others enjoying this.

For now- I will relinquish my top-tier status as BzzAgent Smarterer and waste my time in other ways...like reading blogs about awesome natural products or checking status updates on Facebook.

Um Happy New Year?

This has to be the longest I have gone without a post. It is kind of funny... I don't check my stats or anything and I think I have zero "official" followers but in the past month or so I have had SIX..yes, SIX emails from readers asking me if I was OK. HA. I'm cool...

We have been very busy though. I haven't really stuck with making or adhering to New Year's resolutions BUT this year my husband and I actually created an awesome plan together. It is pretty complex but it incorporates CleanMama's super simple cleaning guidelines and 52 Small Bites simple living/organization.

For the month of January we have focused on having a green juice or smoothie every morning. So far we have only missed 2 mornings! We have also increased the green factor and decreased the fruits--making the juice/smoothie even healthier. My husband is still a bit fixated on protein so I do add a dollop of yogurt for him but lately I have been able to slip him a smoothie without it and he doesn't notice. I put in hemp seeds that I run through a coffee grinder instead.

In February we plan to end our coffee addiction. We have already started the process and have cut back quite a bit. Currently we each get 1 of our Bodem mugs full a day- which is probably more like 2 true cups. We calculated that we spend about $150 on super pure awesome coffee beans and then we add this horrible (but so yummy) Coffeemate Creamer. So they both have to go!

We just recently decided that in March we will end our addiction to cheese. We've been 90% cows milk free for over a year but the cheese is SO hard to give up. I have picked up YumUniverse's Dairy Free e-book. I'm looking forward to experimenting!

Well there you have it, my not-so-exciting first post of 2012.

Happy New Year!

Happy Veteran's Day

I honestly expected this "holiday" to come and go without much thought in our house. We live in a community fairly saturated with military families so I think I have already become a little insensitive to the lifestyle. It takes seeing someone's face and knowing their situation, whether it be a mom at home with multiple kids and a deployed husband or a friend who lost a loved one overseas, to shake off the numbness. I have come to know some extremely tough moms who maintain their sanity better than I do despite a deployed husband! Just getting through a week as a stay-at-home mom is tough for a lot of us, but living daily without the support of your husband has got to be intense. *I know there are women deployed too, but I haven't met any dads (yet).

I am extremely thankful that my husband's position isn't deployable, at this time. If that were to change in the near future I am not sure what I would do with myself. It is hard enough making friends in a new place as it is but to create a support system would be insane. My short experience of being a stay-at-home mom with two girls, alone, didn't go so well and I was in a community where I knew plenty of other moms. My stomach still churns when I think back to last winter and the months the girls and I struggled together. But, it could have been worse. We could have been sending Stephen off to war instead of North Carolina! There are so many families with deployed loved ones...so many kids missing their parent(s)...they deserve so much love and appreciation.

My little brother has been stationed overseas for the past 4 years and is about to embark on another 2 year tour on a Naval ship. The first two years I was stressed and worried about him so much! He got into a few nasty situations and came out just fine so I have learned to trust that he really is a soldier. I will always worry about him, of course, but I am so proud of him for becoming a Seaman and sticking with it (I think he finally beat his longevity record of working at Pizza Hut for several years). It does break my heart that he has met Avery only twice...the last time being right before her first birthday. He has yet to meet Ainsley- who just turned one. I am thankful that he has been stationed in "mild" places (Greece and Italy) and not Iraq or Afghanistan...so far. I pray he never gets his wish and enters a more hazardous zone. It is fortunate that deployments to war zones are typically 6-12 months long. I can't imagine what it would be like for the family or the solider to spend several years in a dangerous place. Separation is hard...regardless of the time and the location. There are so many families dealing with it every day. I really can't complain when I look at the families in our community. I am humbled by my experiences thus far and pray I don't get the opportunity to spend any more time without my husband than I already did this last winter. If you are like me and have become a bit numb to the military families around you- I hope you take today to think about life in their shoes.

Healing from Birth

I've spent just 4 days shy of a year contemplating the concept of "healing from birth". My first daughter was born via c-section. At the time I fully trusted my midwife when she said I needed a c-section. It took the duration of my second pregnancy to understand how wrong she was and how wrong I was for not educating myself more. Directly after my cesarean I was miserable from the physical pain of the surgery. A year later I was over the physical pain but struggling with the emotional agony of wanting more children but wanting to avoid another cesarean. I am stubborn and argumentative and these two traits helped me tremendously in researching, preparing and successfully having a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) with my second daughter.

I truly thought that succeeding in having the birth that I wanted would help me heal from the emotional pain of my first birth. Sadly, I still have regret, anger, grief and flat out disgust hanging on about my surgical birth. I am disgusted by medical professionals who treat birth as an illness. I'm disappointed in myself for "studying" all the wrong things during my pregnancy. I skipped over sections in books on c-sections because I just *knew* that would never happen to me. Ugh! How could I have been so ignorant!?!!?

Even more tragic, I am not the only intelligent mother to approach pregnancy and birth with blinders on! We assume the medical professionals who care for us during our pregnancy want what is best for us. We can just show up and they will tell us what to do, right? So wrong. They aren't caring for us...they are treating us.

While I have no regrets about my VBAC with my second child, I still want a "do over". I want the birth that heals me from my previous births. Does that really exist? I read 2-3 birth stories each week. I can feel the bliss and joy in so many birth stories...usually homebirths. I want that for myself. Yes, I want one more child too, but I do want to experience birth that is...happy? Is that the word? Neither of my births were terrible, like life-threatening terrible. But they were very emotional and traumatic in their own way.

Review: Burt's Bees Natural Skin Solutions

I have been a BzzAgent for a looong time! I have had the chance to receive free products in exchange for Bzz (Buzz). Sounds cool, huh? It is. This month I received a free, full-sized Burt's Bees Natural Skin Solutions cleanser and moisturizer. This is the second Burt's Bees product I have tested with BzzAgent and the third product I have actually used in my home. I have to say, I'm done with Burt's Bees. I kind of feel like their product line is "health-washed". That nifty new word floating on the internet just means a product contains words or descriptions that make it sound "healthy". Similarly, the product can be "green-washed" to sound eco-friendly when it isn't.

Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox. Their products are not certified organic and they contain a lot of natural-sounding ingredients. But they also contain all the other junk we don't want in our items...YET they still charge a ridiculously high price. Not a fan. Here's a link to the EWG's review of many of the Burt's Bees products.

The cleanser was drying anyway. I do have sensitive skin and this product line did nothing to calm it down. It just didn't irritate it...so I guess it is good for sensitive skin. The moisturizer did not replenish my skin enough after the drying cleanser. I found the mild "non-scent" to be pleasant. Overall, I just wouldn't spend that much money on a non-organic product that doesn't perform.