Summer recap

Hello everyone! Can you believe it is already the end of September?

I have the feeling that the birth of our second son has dumped us into a time accelerator. The summer? Back to school? When was that?

I feel it is time for a recap. To remember it all happened! (Ok, and to give me the incentive to finish many half-written posts...)

July was our travelling month. I went to visit my parents in Italy with the kids while my husband was away on a business trip. It felt like slipping back in the summers of my childhood. The city (where we spent a couple of overwhelming days upon arrival, and I discovered a few old friends), emptied of women and children who were already vacationing at the seaside. Summer horoscopes in every magazine. Eating fresh mozzarella everyday, and peaches sprinkled with sugar and lemon for dessert. Lazy days at the countryside, our escape from the city's heat for ten days. Rebooting (literally) at the beach. (Musings about food, and, well, more food, but also about the latest summer fashion, followed).

August got busy from the very first day we came back. We had organized my baby boy's baptism for mid-month, so relatives and friends visited us for most of the time. I managed barely to catch up with Elle magazine (and marveled once more at some crazy fashion) while we were away at Mont Tremblant. Thank goodness for the blissful days we spent at Lac Sacacomie during Labor Day weekend.

On the blog front, I retired (at least for now) our On my mind series, in order to invest more on our Tumblr feed. But I am already plotting to bring it back, so stay tuned...

The comfort zone

Hello everyone! Are your kids back in school?

My son started first grade (gulp) yesterday morning. Meltdowns (me) and tears of emotion (my son) aside, I found myself back in the pre-summer baby-and-me routine. I feel like a bad mom to admit it, but I deeply enjoyed today's quiet. I got a lot of stuff done, including beginning to plot a major closet clean-up (more on this later). 

Yesterday I enjoyed a quiet lunch while the baby was sleeping, ad I started catching up with Fall fashion. I thought back about Vogue's editor comfort piece today, as I got excited by not one, but two pairs of flat (even though I had just brought two pairs of my own ballerinas to my local consignment store, at the cry: I prefer kitten heels much more anyway, and they are bad for my resurfacing foot injury). My problem is that I have too many pieces of comfort fashion: shoes, coats, pants.

One pair of flats I ended up buying. How can one turn down a great deal on Balenciaga? I can always return them.

Crazy fashion

Hello everyone! Do you like Erdem?

I love everything by Erdem, and a floral dress I scored on The Outnet a couple of years ago is one of my most treasured possessions -- indeed, one of the things I am most looking forward to wear after I drop the baby weight.

My obsession now has an exception. This coat, especially designed for The Hudson's Bay Company Signature Collection, which sells for close to 3000 CAD. Whether you love or hate The Bay's signature stripes, would you ever want to spend such an amount of money for this coat? Unless you are Anna Dello Russo, of course, and you get it as a gift.

P.S. More crazy fashion here.


Photo: Cheek Magazine.

Just browsing

Hello everyone! Have you found any new interesting thing on the Web lately?

While breastfeeding my baby boy in his first few months of life, I have been through several -- hello iPhone and nighly feedings --, and I thought I'd share a few you may like as well:

+ The photography and the looks (of course!) of Sara Strand's personal style blog.

+ Two blogs (Note to self and Modern kiddo), and a new online vintage shop I discovered via the latter (Mikasa su casa).

+ Hilda Grahnat's beautiful pictures and her "sublime lighting", as Victoria correctly put in in her post.

+ Pretty little things by Classy and Faboulous (pictured above), and pretty much everything else.

+ I love your style (Amanda Brooks's blog), found via Joslyn's post. The book, which I own, is at the top of my reading list.

+ Need Supply's online store, via Jaclyn Day  (probably you already know about it, but up here in Canada sometimes it is like living under a rock).

Do people cry in taxis?

Hello everyone! Did you cry when you took your kids to daycare for the first time?

This morning, as I was riding in the taxi towards the daycare center, my baby was holding my finger real tight and was giving me big smiles, probably anticipating an adventure somewhere new. The sun was shining and I realized he has the eyes of my beloved grandmother. That's when I had to fight back the tears, and I thought about dishing it all out to the driver. That's when it occurred to me that in the movies people always seem to kiss in taxis rather than cry, and luckily this issue distracted me long enough to arrive at our destination. The mind's musings can be a beautiful thing, sometimes.


Photo: The Sartorialist.

The best advice to new moms

Hello everyone! Did you follow Jenna Wolfe through her pregnancy journey?

Today I was going to write about something completely different. I was going to explain what has kept me busy and away from blogging for the past two weeks. Then I read this post, and I could not stop myself from sharing it with you.

I did not have a favourite news correspondent until I began reading Jenna Wolfe's pregnancy chronicles, smartly titled Jenna's (Baby) Food for thought. Each instalment brought me back to seven years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child. I wish I would have had her sense of humour then! Hers is the best advice for new moms. Turn the tough times in the funny times. Your baby, your husband, and yourself will thank you for it.


Photo: Jenna Wolfe.

Coming out of the closet

Hello everyone! Was there ever a moment in your life when you could fit your entire wardrobe on a single rack?

After my baby boy was born and I retired my maternity clothing, I had nothing left in my closet except for winter boots. (Thank goodness for those, because a few weeks later I realized that even shoes did not fit my swollen feet).

Having absolutely nothing to wear gives clean slate a whole new meaning. No sursprises waiting at the end of the closet. No shopping your closet. No editing.

Rebuilding my post-pregnancy wardrobe from the group up (literally) has been a path to self-discovery. Now I know I could not live with just 100 personal items as Dave Bruno set out to do. Yet I realized that I am a happier person with less than 30 items in my closet.

The road to this point has been bumpy, and at the beginning I felt like I was running blind. What style was flattering for my new figure? I had no idea. Deliveries came numerous, mainly from GAP and Zara as I was trying to keep the costs down. Returns went back in almost the same amount. My wardrobe felt like an everyday sample sale.

The calm after such stormy weather came before the summer begun. I realized I had become a different person. The mother-of-one version of me is tucked away in the out-of-season closet, together with the bodycon Cavalli ruched dress I never wore, and the ultra-low rise skinny jeans that were my staple.

Are there things I miss wearing? Of course. (I am looking at you Jimmy Choo leather leggings). I would have never guessed they would have been so few.

Memories from a retreat

Hello everyone! What is the most remote place you have been lately?

Last weekend, in occasion of Labor Day, we bid farewell to summer by spending a few blissful days at Lac Sacacomie, thanks to my parents' generous gift for our tenth wedding anniversary.

From the pictures I had seen on the website, I knew that the place was isolated. (The closest town is fifteen minutes away by car.) I had not anticipated that cell phone reception was going to disappear except for a few lucky spots. (Think standing-upside-down-to-get-coverage kind of situation, like in the early days of cell phones). Indeed, the cell phone signal disappeared when we entered the resort's reserve. No wifi anywhere. My husband went on his Sunday run, got lost, and had to hitchhike back to the hotel. (Who does that anymore?)

Somehow it did not even bother me much. The peace was just priceless. (Yes, that's a beaver in the last picture!)