Chic Christmas Moments

This Christmas went above and beyond! The season is about giving and family, and above all a sense of coming together to feel truly blessed in all that life has to offer. This Christmas was Abby's first Christmas, and while she had no idea what was going on, the abundance of gifts under our tree went mostly in her direction. There was a special moment on Christmas Eve when Kyle said he wanted to give me a gift early, and he presented me with this:

A Sony Bloggie handheld video camera. It shoots HD videos, and takes still pictures while it's recording! So not only will we never miss any of her first moments (I'll be leaving it with our nanny), but we got to record her waking up on Christmas Morning. Now, some might say that the HUGE smile that ensued after we told her Santa came is pure coincidence, but I disagree!
Christmas brought a new Tory Burch bag....it's a brown/grey wool with a bronze(ish) metallic logo on it. It's large enough to not only fit my computer, but also double as a diaper bag (and a fabulous carry on bag for travel)! Abby was spoiled with all kinds of clothes and enough toys to fill her (first) toy box. Of course, we started her Disney collection with several DVDs as well.
Most importantly, we got to spend time with family, and it was truly a blessing to see everyone with Abby and Abby with everyone. It was just this time last year that she was about to come into our conscious thought and change our lives forever.....

Until Next Time...

Dabble

Pictures with santa

I am SO excited for this guy to come to our house in a couple of nights

Yes, I do really mean come to our house. Last night Kyle and I went to Southpoint for Abby's first visit with the man in red. There is the chance that next year she will totally lose it and run screaming from the man with the bag full of gifts, although Kyle is determined that will NOT happen, so we wanted to get it done this year. She slept through the entire thing, then of course on the way home screamed. My interpretation of that is "I DIDN'T GET TO TELL HIM MY WISH LIST!!!!!" I wore my red "I believe" shirt with Santa's face on it, and potentially looked slightly young to be a mom, but I was happy.

I love the holiday season and the magic that comes with it (YES I said holiday season and not just Christmas because not EVERYONE celebrates Christmas this time of year). I'm always excited to get elbow deep in flour and make cookies and come up with clues for my gift tags. Those two things are probably my most favorite traditions of the season.

This year my mom and I included Abby in our cookie dough making, we have a few more cookie types to make and actually make the cookies hopefully today with Kyle. Next year we'll all be covered in frosting and will probably end up with more in our hair than on the cookies and I can't wait!! The clues, my family always writes witty clues on the gift tags to perplex the recipient as to what might be inside. We take it as a personal challenge to stump each other and then go "OHHHH" when we open gifts. Personally, I think it makes spending all that time wrapping gifts MUCH more enjoyable!

Speaking of wrapping gifts....I must finish doing that!

Until next time....

Dabble

Perseverance...My 2012 Resolution

I am going to start this long overdue blog with a quote:
"If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying. "Here comes number seventy-one!" Richard M. Devos

I do not think it is a secret to any of my friends, family, readers, or even a select group of total strangers, that my life is absolutely normal chaos. Not to mention, it's the holidays. The holidays always bring their own fabulous group of challenges from finding the "perfect" gift, cooking, balancing a 3 month old and the rest of your family, to somehow finding a way to keep yourself cool, calm, and collected throughout the entire process. Well, last year I got pregnant over the holidays. Seemed all of the pressure of trying in the preceding months with no success fell to the wayside from the pressure of the holidays, and alas! Baby!
This year I'm hoping for another success at finally having the baby I've been dreaming of. No....I'm not talking about getting pregnant again just yet (after all Abby is only 3 months old), but rather the baby of the start-up business.
It seems that start-ups are never really out of their start-up phase until all of a sudden they are...kind of like infants to toddlers. Bam! How'd that happen?
Well right about now I feel like we're going through the terrible twos phase on our way to true bubbly enjoyable interactive toddler-hood. So my New Year's resolution is to persevere.
"If at first you don't succeed, you're running about average." M.H. Alderson
They say that 95% of new companies will fail in the first 5 years. WOW! With a "joyful" combination of things we have managed to stumble our way across the one year mark with a very bright future for Q1 of 2012. I guess that means that we're 20% of the way into making it out of the very dark tunnel that is on the path of every new company. To try and write everything I have learned during 2011 would take a book of its own, and probably a very nice bottle of wine (after all I'd need one to bring up all of the memories and not suppress some). But just like raising children, you don't start a company because it's a "cute idea", you do it out of a complete level of selfless love.
However it is not enough to just keep trudging on. It is not enough to keep TRYING to raise your children right, you have to find a talent for it.
"Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall."
Sydney J. Harris
If you keep banging your head, you might not get the desired result. Sometimes I feel like I am doing the above, working more towards a concussion than a hole in the wall. Maybe I need to take a step back and grab the sledge hammer, accept assistance, and approach the wall again with the same amount of drive I had when I was beating my head against it. If there is one thing I have learned since becoming a mother that speaks to running a start-up company it is this:

Just because something works today, don't expect it to tomorrow. Yesterday's solution has a variable that today's problem does not...it was yesterday. If you feel like you have run out of options take a look at your child; they will show you the way to a new set. You have to be open to the possibility that your surroundings know more than you do.

Until next time....

Dabble

A little bit of Louis...

So I just finished a logo design for a client, and they wanted this bronze brown color. When I was finished mt brain kept returning to the classic logo color on Louis Vuitton bags and I allowed myself a 10 minute indulgence while I ate my lunch to browse the Louis Vuitton website. Five years ago my dad did a "terrible" thing and bought me a Louis bag in their classic pattern that was a perfect school/work bag. Two and a half years later, he bestowed my second bag upon me:

The real "wow factor" from this bag came from buying it in Paris at their flagship store shortly after its remodel. I could have spent days in that store drooling over the classic trunks and running my fingers over the clothing, not to mention coveting the shoes that I would have to use every brain cell concentrating to be able to balance in them. I have used this bag almost every day for the last three and a half years and absolutely adore it.
During my online "window shopping" I stumbled across this little gem:

It's a debossed leather, and comes in several colors. We recently had a photo book order at work that requested a leather cover close to this color and I loved it. They also have a deep purple, which might match more of my wardrobe, but beggars can't be choosers. I should note that I think it will be a long time before I add any more Louis pieces or bags to my collection, and I honestly think I would love to buy my next piece for myself; sort of an accomplishment....and I should also mention that even with that, I wouldn't turn away one as a gift. (Just a girl being honest!)

I don't care if it's a thousand dollar bag, a three thousand dollar dress, or something you found at a consignment store that hugs all of the right places. There is something about a piece of clothing or an accessory that has the power to raise your confidence level to where you need it on the rough days, and lets you say "I have my big girl panties on today and I can conquer the world".

I live for days like that!

Until next time....

Dabble

Daily Grind....family thoughts

It seems appropriate that on a Monday I would write something about "the daily grind". The first day back to the office is always something to be scowled at, but today was just a day full of changes that I think my entire family scowled at a little bit. Today Abby stayed home with Grandy (my mom), and I went to work without either of them. Abby has been refusing a bottle for about 6.5 weeks now, but had a breakthrough on Saturday while I was out of the house and took one. Given that she can smell me from ~30 feet away (at least that's what I'm told...but I think it's more like 30 yards), it would make sense that I would need to be nowhere around for her to consider a "replacement". This is the longest I have been away from her...ever...I did go home mid day to nurse her because she was again refusing a bottle and my "mommy guilt" just will not let me "torture" her like that just yet. I know she will not let herself starve...but she's so ridiculously pitiful that it breaks my heart.
So Grandy is doing us a favor by breaking her into the routine of me back at work, and the almost as fabulous perk of setting up a crock pot meal for when we get home. I love love LOVE the crock pot...how could I have had TWO in my house still in boxes from when we got married a year and a half ago and never broken them free?!!?!?
On a totally different note, today I am constantly thinking of the daily grind everyone around me has, more particularly my brother (even though he is not directly around me). We live about an hour away from my brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews, and yet we never see them as much as we do. My brother is the owner of Rick Ware Racing and owns/manages Nationwide, Camping World Truck, Arenacross, and several other racing teams. Needless to say....he's VERY busy. I got to see the family this past Saturday at a funeral, and then again (with Abby and Kyle) for dinner at the Chop House.
The funeral was for Rick Ware Racing's Marketing Director whom we lost suddenly due to a heart attack. The amount of work that he put into the organization and his sudden loss was a harsh reality check for me about the fragile state of business and family. How can we ever protect ourselves from something like this being anything besides utterly devastating on all levels. I can offer to help in any manner I can, but I can never replace...no one can. I watched my brother during dinner and saw him talk to our dad about the next racing season (dad still races at 69...crazy....but he LOVES it)...and I saw the spark in his eyes. I have always admired the tenacity, dedication, and above all faith that my brother has in his business and family life. It it that much more apparent to me now that I have my own business and my own family, and every day I remind myself to "stick with it".
RWR had a HUGE accomplishment this year in winning the Rookie of The Year title for the Nationwide series with the youngest driver in NASCAR history to ever do so. I feel like I am on my own hunt for the Rookie of The Year for my own industry, but I have much of a less public setting in which to do so. I wish I had more time...or rather that life had more time...so I could sit down with my brother and not only tell him how much I admired him, but also ask him WHERE he finds the strength to keep going when you feel like you're moving away from the light at the end of the tunnel. How do you find the perfect combination of dedication, faith, tenacity...and above all hope for a brighter tomorrow?

I'll have a Chic Moment tomorrow I promise...just trying to sort through them all....

Until Next Time....

Dabble

The space in between

With all the craziness of the holidays in full swing, a business to run, an 11 week old to handle, and some sort of personal life there seem to be few moments of "in between" time. I'm sure that no matter who you are, the holidays do this to just about everyone and I have to wonder, why? I enjoy spending time with my family and decorating the house, lighting the candles, and getting the MASSIVE tree. I even enjoy cooking and hostessing, and finding that perfect gift. Christmas has always been just about my favorite time of the year. I think it's a comfort thing for me. Even after my parents were separated, we still did Christmas together. There were a couple years when I was in college that I did my own thing with each of them, but once I got married Christmas became a "family" event again, and now with Abby I don't think I could keep the Grandparents away!
Even still, I find myself close to tears in moments like the one I had this morning. Abby is going through her 3 month growth spurt a bit early (surprise surprise) and has been fussy, hungry, tired, and clingy for the past few days. She had a hard time going back down this morning after her 6am feeding so I pulled her into bed with me and we cuddled. Before you tell me to "stop that habit so she doesn't get used to it" or "that's so dangerous" I will tell you that she spent her first at least three weeks of life sleeping in our bed, not something I had intended to do AT ALL, she is still alive and well, and every night for the last week can be put down in her pack n play to go to bed while she is drowsy and put herself to sleep....we will do what works for us with the given situation. Anyway (mini vent over), she nuzzled into me and was so peaceful. In that moment in between all of the craziness I learned another level of the value of my bond with her and made a silent wish that all children and parents would remember that this kind of love is supposed to be unconditional, remember that especially during the holidays.
My job might be something I love, but it also makes me insane at times. Sure, in not too many years I will probably be able to say that about Abby, but there is nothing I wouldn't give up for my family. I think that if we took time to notice the little moments in between all of the craziness, we might be able to hang on to a bit more sanity when it comes at you from all angles.
As we get ready to put our Holiday cards together to send out, I am thinking about what to put on the inside message. When I look at the front photo for our card, something most of you will see in the mail and I will post after we mail them out, I see the future. When I look at our future, it's all about the little moments in between. I don't see the craziness of work, or the upcoming "terrible twos", I see all of the blissful moments. So why is it so hard for us to see those when we're in them?

Until next time....

Dabble

Bounty Hunting...animal style

Meow's disappearance has opened my eyes to the world beyond shelters and rescue groups when it comes to finding lost animals. When I went into APS of Durham yesterday I talked to one of the women we deal with for our print sponsorship of their shelter and she told me to go to craigslist. Really?!?! I kind of thought that was for old TVs, romantic connections, and listing apartments for rent...but animals? Skip over the pets section and go to Lost and Found and there is a mecca of Found and Lost animals. So meow got a listing...
Then it was on to www.petharbor.com and www.trianglelostpets.org for listings. You can post animals Lost and animals Found, and search by type, breed, primary color, age, etc. For the past 36 hours I have been glued to these websites hunting for our kitty. Yet, maybe...just maybe...the old fashioned flyer worked. We received a phone call around 10pm from someone that got one of our flyers. He received an email a couple of nights ago from a women that had found a cat, and he seemed to think that the picture she took and the picture on our flyer matched. Of course, he wouldn't give us her contact information because it wasn't his to give (yet he told me her address....that makes a ton of sense), but he emailed her my contact information.
Well of course, Kyle and I couldn't just sit here, so we went out and left more flyers...specifically on her street so that when she gets up in the morning in case she doesn't check her email, she'll see the flyer.
All of this got me to thinking about all of the points of contact one would need to hit in order to effectively find lost animals. I think of shelters, she thought of her neighborhood but not the one connected to it (ours)..until I talked to APS, neither of us thought of the web. Now I want to write a letter for our local paper about the top ten things to do if you find or lose a pet. Without a bird's eye view hitting the streets can take forever depending on the animal's size, and flyers that you post on poles can get wet in the rain.
As we approach the winter and the holiday season the weather poses a bigger risk to misplaced pets, and the holidays will cause many "gifted pets" to be "re-gifted" to the streets when the time and expense become to much of a burden. If we could effectively return more lost pets home, our shelters would have more space. Our pets are indoor pets...yet one got out. Luckily she is spayed, so we won't be adding to the overpopulation issue, but she wasn't micro chipped. I honestly didn't think our cats would NEED it. They'll all have an appointment with the vet VERY soon.
So please, hold your fuzzy ones tight and learn about your local resources for lost and found pets; get yours spayed and neutered (many shelters run discounted programs) and invest in a microchip. If you love them and you lose them it will break your heart.

Here's to hoping Meow will be home tomorrow!!

Until next time

Dabble

Moment of Silence...

I don't have a Chic Moment today, and let's face it...I haven't had one in about a week. The last week has been a whirlwind. Abby and I got home from NY and both developed colds. She spiked fevers and was congested, I was MAJORLY congested and had a throat from hell. Fast forward 6 days and she's better (still sneezing a bit which is actually ridiculously cute), and I'm still blowing crap out of my nose. Needless to say between the two of us, I barely left my bedroom in the last week...never mind the house.
Last night Kyle and I FINALLY had a Moment of Silence. Abby was down for her 1st part of the night, we watched Boardwalk Empire (one of our favorite HBO shows), and we were getting ready for the nighttime ritual diaper change, wake up for feeding, blanket, and bed when Kyle looked at me and said...."Kate....Where's Meow??!?!"
This is Meow:

Kyle rescued her from a gas station about three and a half years ago and brought her to be an indoor/outdoor kitty while he was living with Anthony and Clay ("The Uncles" as Abby will learn to call them...also our business partners) When Kyle moved in with me December of '08 so did Meow....but not until she gave birth to 3 kittens March of '08, one of which we still have, "Gizmo". This little lady above hit what I like to call the "Kitty Lottery". She is the sweetest thing and nicknamed "Softie" because she loves to cuddle and really is the softest thing in the world.

Anyway, Kyle looked frantically for what felt like forever while I nursed Abby, and I could tell there came a point where he started looking slower because maybe she had hidden to pass away (she's young, but stranger things have happened). He didn't find her. I put Abby down, and he took a bowl full of dry food outside and walked around the neighborhood shaking it (a sound she knows well)....nothing....

She escaped our house days ago.....and with everything going on...ridiculously long work hours....sickness...and the fact that our cats really keep to themselves and practically never come into our room (their choice)....it was finally in our Moment of Silence that we missed our cuddly couch potato.

Posters are going up, I have contacted all of the local shelters, and Kyle is going door to door starting tomorrow, but now it's time for a different kind of Moment of Silence.

It's time to say a little prayer that Meow will come home, return to us with her soft little "Meows" (how she got her name), with her beauty mark (she has been called Meow Crawford several times), and her soft protruding chin. I miss the random pieces of paper and coupons she wound find around the house and carry to our bedroom doorway, we called them "offerings" similar to the dead animals she used to bring before she became indoor only (but much cleaner). It's time to hope that she's safe, and maybe, just maybe, someone brought her inside because she was so sweet and we can find the right house if she can't get home to us.

Life is not supposed to get this crazy, and it makes me appreciate all of the people that work with rescue organizations that much more. Situations like this is why I am so adamant about supporting places like the Animal Protection Society of Durham both on a corporate and a personal level.

Please come home Meow....

We miss you.....here's a Moment of Silence for you.....


Until next time....

Dabble



Snapshots

As anyone knows, life is full of those little candid moments you want to remember forever. This is the main reason I LOVE photography. My main item on my Christmas wish list is a camera upgrade especially now that we have an amazing little girl that we want to capture every moment with. I also have snapshots in my brain, like the moment Kyle proposed, or when I saw those two lines on the pregnancy test. For other moments in life we turn to our favorite photographers.
For our wedding we had the mastermind of Mr. Matt McGraw (out of Wilmington North Carolina). What I loved about him was that he captured his light in the camera versus in photoshop. Frequently he'll post "before and after" shots on facebook showing people how you can use the craziest of lighting and make what you want out of them. Here's an example:

This was taken after our wedding at about 4pm in the afternoon, full sunlight on the beach of Bald Head Island, NC. If i had taken this picture it would have been washed out, and the guys wouldn't be silhouetted at all. I saw this photo in the camera...this is how it looked, this is the look of photographic genius!
We love Matt, and hope he will forgive us for ease of scheduling, and yes I'll admit a little bit of cost effectiveness, we've brought another photographer into our list of favorites.
Britten Berry went to high school with Kyle and did my maternity pictures. Both of these photographers make me feel completely comfortable in my own skin, and whatever I may be wearing whether it be my wedding dress in freezing rain and wind for my bridal shoot in Boston with Matt, or draped fabric with a large 32(ish) week pregnant belly bare and exposed. This is central to any good photographer in my opinion.
Common to both of these photographers is the photojournalistic quality. I don't want overly posed pictures on our walls, we want our life on our walls the way we'd live it. Sure, some moments are staged to look natural, especially dealing with infants (that's always fun). Here are a few of my favorites from my maternity shoot:

We recently had Britten come back to take photos of Abby and get some for our Christmas card and I got the slide show preview yesterday...SO excited!! Eventually, our house's walls will be covered in pictures of snapshots of our lives, and I'll get to mix those in with the snapshots I hold so dear in my mind.
If you'd like more information on either photographer, check out their websites (tell them I sent you, and for all my fellow Red Sox fans, forgive Matt's Yankees hat!)
http://www.mattmcgrawphotography.com/
http://www.brittenberryphotography.com/


Until next time....

Dabble

Mommy moment...

Yesterday was Abby's two-month birthday, and it was an interesting day to say the least. After a fabulous trip to Long Island, including a train ride into the city with a walk around Central Park, it was time to fly home. She'd been getting kind of snotty, not behavior of course but nose/chest, and started to have a very rough bout of gas. It's funny how we can talk about gas, puke, snot, poop, and all other bodily functions with an infant or small child without any real discomfort, but we seem so touchy when it comes to adults. I digress....To make what could be a very long story short, Abby was very fussy in the airport, slept for the first 20 minutes of our flight and then woke up to the loudspeaker...and it was ALL over....she screamed bloody murder for 5 out of every 6 minutes for the rest of the flight.
NOTE TO ALL FLYERS....if you are seated next to someone with an infant, whether sleeping or inconsolable, do not ignore the parent. If you ignore the small being next to you, the parents will think you're "that" person thinking "great I'm on the flight with an infant". I've said this a lot in the last 12 hours, but trust me, out of everyone on the flight with a screaming infant...the infant wants to get off of the plane the most. Between bouncing, rocking, "shhhhh-ing", and wrapping her as close to me as I could get her for the painful decent into Raleigh and the pressure changes that must have been killing her ears I had a mommy moment.

I went into my own little bubble and wanted to cry with her, take away her pain, and no matter how much my back was hurting me, or the amount of spit up I was covered in...none of it mattered. This is a central part of being a parent, the selfless love that makes you want to throw yourself into a fire pit to protect your children. While I wish that she could have been more comfortable, I appreciated showing myself that I had this kind of love for her. After quietly shedding a few tears out of desperation, we both had a sigh of relief when she calmed down at landing.
THAT was my Chic Moment of the day. The rest of the world didnt matter, the spit up didnt matter, the breast milk all over my shirt didnt matter, my hair and make up didnt matter. What mattered was the 13.5 pounds snuggled into my neck and grabbing my shirt that will eventually call me "mom".

Until next time...

Dabble

So I couldn't afford the dress....

So do you remember the fabulous girly red Valentino dress I posted earlier?? Well clearly that's not in my budget...at around $3,500.....but Fairy Godmommy and I hit the outlets today and went to Saks off 5h (and again they were having a Veteran's Day sale, insert warning label here.
I needed a pair of new sunglasses and everything was at least 40% off...so I picked up these babies:

Normally if you bought these from Mr. Valentino they'd run you $365....seriously....I know.....but I got them for MUCH less...like less than $100. Yes they were still a splurge, and Kyle calls them "fake out glasses" because you can wear them and practically cover up your face not good for a guy trying to see what a girl looks like, I understand, but he's stuck with me already so I have the right to hide it if I can't get make up on in the morning before coffee.

Also, Joe's jeans were on sale for 40% off outlet prices....=$60....and so were the little kid's Joes...=$20, so Abby got  to have a Chic Moment with Joes Jeggings in a 12 month size. At the rate she's growing she'll be in them by the summer!!

Mexican Take out just arrived and my spit up machine is sleeping...although she just blew out her diaper so I have many things needing attention!

Until next time

Dabble

Have Baby...Will Travel...

As expected after a full day yesterday, I missed blogging. It's funny how quickly I got used to having a mini feed of my thoughts and tid bits of fashion nonsense, and how much I missed it. Anyway, Abby and I flew Jet Blue yesterday from Raleigh to JFK, and the whole experience started fabulously. I got out of the house on time, got to the airport with enough time, check in...and then came the checked luggage. Jet Blue is lovely and doesn't charge you for your first bag, and apparently not for checking a car seat either...SCORE!
BUT...my bag was 4lbs over weight. I expected as much because I packed all of my clothes, shoes, Abby's clothes, bathroom items, and my breast pump all in one bag (I felt accomplished that I got it to close). So she asked me if I had a carry on I could "put a couple pounds in"....ya sure, in my exploding diaper bag or my baby...I was able to get out my computer charger and a car seat cover and that brought it to 2lbs over, and she let it slide!! WOO HOO...avoided that $50 charge.
That brought us to saying "good bye" to daddy....poor Kyle. Abby's first flight, girls gone for 3 nights, and she's changing so much everyday, but I think he's handling it very well and I'm sending lots of pictures!
Everyone warned me about security. Well...it was a little weird, but easy. Got everything on the belt, bag of liquids out, shoes off (wore the UGGs so it'd be easy), and they let me walk through the scanner with her in her Bjorn...then I set the detector off. The TSA agent looks at me "do you still have your belt on? If you can't walk through without setting it off with her attached to you, she's going to have to come off for inspection"....yes I still had my belt on...let's try again...no beeping PHEW. BUT THEN they had to wipe down my hands with a cloth to test for explosives residue that I might be HIDING IN MY BJORN....SERIOUSLY?? I mean thanks for the protection, but HUH???
Abby and I locked ourselves in a handicap stall in the bathroom, she nursed for about 15 minutes, we changed a diaper, and then she fell asleep 5 minutes before boarding. YES! Flight attendant told me I couldn't keep her in the Bjorn for travel, I guess to make sure I REALLY wasn't hiding anything in her. So Abby slept cradled in my arms for the ENTIRE flight, take off, landing, all the crazy bumps. She even got a set of Junior Crew Jet Blue wings!!!!
After I got my luggage and loaded everything, we went outside to meet Fairy Godmommy Lindsey. Got all of my stuff loaded and went to put my car seat on her infant base....and it didn't fit.....OMG.....huh???? We stood there for a second staring at each other thinking "this REALLY cant be happening" Lindsey has a two and a half year old, does baby stuff really out date that quickly? So....we jerry-rigged her daughter's car seat to fit Abby, yes people my daughter rode front facing in a car seat for about 15 minutes before we made it to Buy Buy Baby to buy a new base.
Then it was time for some Tory. I got my first pair of Tory Burch flats and Abby was there to witness the moments occasion! I can't post pictures now but I'll come back and add them. They're classic black patent and will go with just about anything.
Here they are!!!

But of course Saks was having a Veteran's Day Sale and there was a section of Kate Spade shoes 30% off....so I tried on a pair of red suede low heels, that have a red petal flower on the toe, covers the whole toe, and the shoe has an accent of black patent trim...I'll find a picture! It was a total Chic Moment of the day and I felt fabulous in them (but had to order them because they didn't have my size).
Here they are!!!

Then, sadly, it was time to leave the world of fashion because the spit up machine decided she was just DONE for the day and we needed to go home. Got her in her appropriately fitted car seat and base and started the drive. Well of course she stunk her diaper, was TIRED, and we hit traffic, so Fairy Godmommy suggested that I get into the back seat with her.

SURE....why not.....

Well, that meant, while driving, wedging myself ass first between her two front seats (she drives the small Cadillac SUV), those seats are not meant to have female hips pass through them, and THEN wedging myself in between the two car seats in the back seat, all of the bags on the floor, and the car seat box balancing on the big girl car seat. I made it, all of me except for one of my legs that stayed up front with Lindsey and went numb, and I ripped my jeans. My skinny William Rast light wash jeans that I love, but I'll patch them. Abby still screamed for a chunk of the ride home, but was calmed by sucking on my knuckle and me holding her fists.

She was a trooper the rest of the night and PUT HERSELF TO SLEEP for the first time EVER in, not to mention spent the night in a big girl pack n play!! This is one happy mommy who needs to get herself in gear and get ready to do some damage at the outlets this afternoon!

Many more Chic Moments expected from today!!

Until next time

Dabble

Taking myself seriously....

So Kyle (lovely husband) forwarded me an email this morning from a company, nameless for now, that found us through Xerox's Premier Partner Network. Apparantly we are one of 13 companies nationwide approved to be a Premier Partner of Xerox that can not only handle custom printing but also direct mail. Fast forward, the want me to be a member of their network for mid-market CEOs (normally means over 300 employees HAH!) and they want Greeting Express to be their print and mail partner.
WOO HOO...Right?!?!
Well partner is a fancy way to say sponsor, and apparently the value of exposure we "will" get through this "partnership" is $80,000....which means we would need to donate over the course of one year $80,000 in retail value in product.
::Insert speachless moment::
No problem right? Well first of all, I'm honored and proud to be asked, but is this a level of exposure (to over 50,000 companies nationwide) that we're ready for? Easy answer is yes because exposure equals business, but I'm 25 years old, female, and a start-up CEO...not just the CEO of a start-up. Why do I find myself hesitant on a personal level to put myself in the shark pen with 50,000 other CEOs for this network as an individual...and not as hesitant to commit our company to the sponsorship.
Maybe I'm afraid of judgement, but usually I relish in the opportunity to shatter expectations to the wayside when I'm not the brainless 25 year old female they expect me to be. The purpose of the networking and the group is actually to change the appearance of CEOs to the nation, think less insider trading and million dollar salaries preaching "eco-friendly" and flying in private jets...more actually caring about employees, work conditions, health programs, and benefits (ahem walmart). So I shouldnt be scared right?
Either way...it got me thinking and I took a look into some dream work outfits...you know for when I have a million dollar salary and fly private...here's a taste!!

FABULOUS Oscar de la Renta...love the high waist belt, something that I feel I look good in, and the scooped neck so the feeding devices that my daughter needs don't hang out in unsuspecting faces

Ah Valentino...little more fun and girly, less baracudda b*tch boss, and I have a pair of Kate Spade heels (bought ON CLEARANCE at Nordstrom years ago) that look very much like the shoes she's wearing....
Must snap back to reality and see how we can afford to donate $80,000 in retail...and go to BJs to by a massive bag of dog food.

until next time

Dabble

A Touch of Tory

Here's my "Chic Moment" of the day. Abby and I are getting ready to go visit her fairy godmommy (aka her godmother) on Long Island this weekend. It will be her first plane ride, and her first girls shopping weekend. The last time I went up to Long Island to visit Lindsey we hit the outlets and I came home with a fabulous pair of Hudson jeans, a Juicy shrug, and a Kate Spade diaper bag (mind you I wasn't pregnant yet...but trying). Needless to say I blame Lindsey for being the "bad influence" on me and claim no responsiblity myself (of course).

Here's what I have my eye on for this trip:

These Tory Burch flats are classic, and I have had a mild love affair with Tory Burch since I got married. My "something blue" was taken care of entirely on my feet

I LOVE these shoes, and have worn them VERY frequently since their debut a year and a half ago. Given our beach wedding they were the perfect Chic Moment in the sand. So now about these flats....I've seen them everywhere, usually in the classic black with a silver, gold, or black logo, but I'm drawn to the nude. I feel like I have SO many pairs of black shoes, and while I might not be ready to rock something like these to work

(also Tory)....nor are they practical for the winter, I think a fabulous ballet flat is totally justifiable, and if you don't agree with me just ask Abby's fairy godmommy and she'll set you straight.  Spit up machine is awake now, Chic Moment over!

Dabble



Perk of being your own boss...

Oh Wednesday...otherwise known as hump day, but really it's just another day. When you own your own business the saying goes "you get to pick the 90 hours you work in a week". I agree with that 110%. When I was "getting ready" to have Abby I tried to plan my maternity leave. Our company has a 7 week policy of paid leave, and you can use your vacation and sick time in conjunction, fantastic right? Well sure, but I couldn't exactly just vanish for 9+ weeks, but I can bring Abby to work with me. I was doing price quotes in the hospital the day she was born, I should have known the trend of my "leave" wouldn't change too much after that.
Fast forward to this morning, lovely hump day, when the biggest perk of getting to do what I want with work turned into going into the office with spit up on my sleeve. WOO HOO!! I had gotten myself ready, Abby ready, everything packed, and we settled in to walk out the door when my daughter in all of her demure feminine glory let out a burp to rival any drunk frat boy. Out comes the spit up all over my sleeve and I told her "this is why it's nice to be your own boss"....not exactly the perk I had imagined when I became my own boss.

Dabble

Why Dabble....

Well it's time to get back to blogging. I have long said that I wanted to write a book, but let's face it...I simply do not have the time! So, by blogging, hopefully the book will write itself. In the last 18 months my life has had MANY milestones. I graduated college, got married, moved into a new house, started a custom printing company in a 15,000 square foot building, got pregnant, and had a baby. PHEW!
Anyway, I was talking to a very good friend, Krista, this past weekend when she came to visit us and meet Abby (our daughter) for the first time. I told her that I thought it would be entertaining to chronicle my life, give fun design tips, have our chaotic dogs "write" entries, explain the fabuously rewarding and insanity creating element of life called parenthood, and juggle life through words.
When I was thinking of what to have my "signature" be for my blog I was sitting at my office desk typing with one hand and holding my sleeping 8 week old on my shoulder with my other. Abby is a joy, and has a different nick name for every possible personality (but we'll get into that later). The first week of her life I was trying to work her name into several songs and saying and intead of "Yabba Dabba Do" I said "Abba Dabba Do" and since then have been calling her Dabs or Dabber....then since my life is a hodge podge of a million different things I seem to be dabbling in all parts of life. Thus, "Dabble" was born!
Why Dabble in Chic...
EVERY mom, working woman, combination of the two, single girl of any age...every woman wants a touch of Chic in her life. I might not be able to catch a shower every day (GAH I admitted it), and sometimes I actually leave the house without a touch of makeup...but at the same time I find myself flipping through Vogue or watching episodes of The Rachel Zoe project and becoming infatuated with fashionable moments. We all need to Dabble in Chic at some point every day of our lives, and my mission (that I extend to you should you choose to accept is) is to find the Chic in all of life's crazy moments, even the ones covered in spit up!

Until tomorrow!