Cars & Clothes

I had an amazing time in L.A. with the Toyota Women’s Influencers Network this week!  But I just got home last night at 7:00 pm and I haven’t been able to really process all of the great things I learned & experienced there yet, SO – I’m going to tell you about that next week.  What I can process for you now, is of course, MY CLOTHES!! Because my clothes were really simple, yet beautiful – a perfect way to describe their maker, Lands’ End.

You see, we were supposed to wear “business casual” to Toyota’s campus, and since I’ve been staying at home for four years, I no longer own A SINGLE PAIR of business casual pants (that fit, anyway).  So, I asked my pals at Lands’ End to help me out.  Please enjoy this very generous paraphrase of our conversation:

“Hey  I am going to wear all Lands’ End at this event because I love you guys, and I want to shill for you 24/7, but I have no pants, and since pantsless is generally not considered biz casual, would you send me a pair to review?  I already have the rest of my outfit put together.”  And they were all, “SURE! We’d love to!”  Because they are awesome.  And then they were like, “Do you need anything else?”  and because I am a total whore, I said, “Well I could use a casual-er dress.  I am going to wear one of my Mom 2.0 dresses but the others are a little too fancy I think.”  And they were all, “No problem!”  And THEN they were all, “Oh whoopsie, we are out of the color dress you wanted, so we just sent you TWO dresses, hope one of them works out.”  Seriously!! Lands’ End is amazing!

BOTH dresses ended up fitting, and I already had Lands’ End shoes and everything else I needed to make the outfits work.  So, here’s my fabulous Lands’ End wardrobe for the Toyota Women event:

violetdress
Women's Embroidered Bodice Dress

This dress is what I wore Tuesday night for our opening dinner. It felt SO great on.  And the embroidery is just gorgeous.  It has POCKETS, which I loved.  The color is a really violet-y blue that you honestly don’t see much, so that in addition to the embroidery really set it apart.  This dress is so versatile, it would definitely go from the office to church to a picnic.  It was perfect for our California casual dinner, too.  I got so many compliments on it!  I wish I had gotten a better picture, I tried to have my friend Jen take one, but it was super-windy out and my skirt was up around my ears and no one needs to SEE THAT!  It really is just a beautiful, comfortable dress.

On Wednesday, for our day at Toyota’s campus, I wore the pants that started it all – the Women’s Fit 1 Stretch Crop Chinos.  I adore these pants!  So comfortable, very chic, they work great with heels or flats and can definitely take you just about anywhere you need to go in 24 hours (maybe not the gym – but who wants to go there anyways!?)  Here’s how I put my outfit together:
jenny nerd

I realize I look like a total nerd in this picture, but I thought it showed my outfit so well, I’m taking one for the team (thanks again to Jenbshaw for capturing mynerd-ity.  She was just taking random pictures of me because I am THAT magnetic, apparently.)  Here’s a less nerdy one also. But wait til my actual Toyota post and you will see Jill and I go FULL NERD.  Anticipation!!

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Me w/ a Lexus at the Toyota Museum. Because my husband is a Lexus guy!

So, shockingly, most of this outfit I ALREADY OWNED. I know, crazy right? Well about 95% of my wardrobe is Lands’ End. Most days you will find me in it from head to toe. So this is why I love working with them. I put my $$ where my mouth is on a regular basis! This cream tank top I have on is actually from Lands’ End’s Lands’ End Canvas line, and I got it for Mother’s Day from my hubby!  It has little anchors on it and is tres cute.  The cardigan I wore at Mom 2.0, and the scarf I’ve had for about three years.  The Gatas Canvas shoes, which are AMAZINGLY comfortable, I also got for Mom 2.0.  We were supposed to wear shoes that we could drive in, because we got to drive some cool cars, and these were perf!  And Bedorbs!  (Two of my new fave abbreviations.  Abbrev. ev. right Jill?)

On to Tuesday night!  This was a little bit of a fancier dinner, but still casual-ish, however once again Lands’ End had the perfect dress that could work at a picnic or a theatre performance. And I loooooooooooooove it.  And it’s only $55. Hurry and go buy one!!

green dress
Women's Knit Pieced Sundress

You guys, this dress is so comfortable I considered just wearing it to sleep after we got back from dinner. NOT KIDDING! And it has pockets, also, which were wonderful for my cell phone and hotel key. And it is VERY forgiving, no shapewear required! The fabric is actually a very heavy weight and hangs beautifully. You all want this one, girls. Seeeeriously. Jen, (who at, FOUR MENTIONS in this post is probably getting on your nerves right now, right?) was plotting to steal it from me so deviously, I am kind of surprised it made it home with me!

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Two of my favorite bloggers who made my time at Toyota awesome, Jill and Jen! Jen tried to steal my dress.

Well, that’s a wrap on my outfits. They were wonderful, and so is Lands’ End, who of course is not paying me to say this, but totes gave me the two dresses and the magic pants to review. Thanks LE, you made my time at Toyota that much more special because I felt like a million bucks in my clothes!

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Never say Never

I am about to do something I never thought I’d do.

And I’m not sure exactly why.

You see, there’s a crazy movement going on this week started by Lands’ End and the Curvy Girl Guide – a movement about being comfortable with your body – a movement inspired by the many, many choices of swim suits for every body type that Lands’ End offers.  Swimsuit Confidence!

There’s a whole bunch of crazy ladies from the Curvy Girl Guide going to NYC to strut their fine Lands’ End Swimsuit-clad bodies on national television to show their Swimsuit Confidence.   I am not THAT crazy, but I was crazy enough to say yes when Lands’ End asked me to join the movement. They told me to pick out a swimsuit I could be confident in, then they sent it to me – but the catch – I had to post my picture in it!

Seriously, I am still not sure why I said yes.  I am still 10 pounds overweight and have ginormous nursing bewbs (which I am NOT fond of), and pretty much hate to see pictures of myself right now.

But I am what I am.  And, this swimsuit DOES really help me feel better about what I am right now.  I love it!  AND I have a daughter that needs to know that what she is on the inside is more important than how she looks on the outside.  So, I decided she and I would show our Lands’ End swimsuit confidence together. (And, as it turns out, our  broken front porch step. Oops. We’ll get right on that as soon as it stops raining constantly.)

So, here we are. Sophie and I in our swimsuit confidence.  I was so busy trying to get her to look at the camera that I forgot to suck in!  So that’s the real deal, baby!

There’s a lot going on this week to celebrate Swimsuit Confidence!  Here’s how you can get involved:

Get the Twibbon – Click here and display the “I have swimsuit confidence!” Twibbon on your Twitter profile photo. Send a tweet to @LandsEndPR proclaiming “I have swimsuit confidence!” #landsend for a chance to be entered to win a $500 Lands’ End gift card – winner announced May 27.

Participate in a Week of Tweets – Mark your calendar each day May 23 – 27, 2011 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST so you can join in the series of National Swimsuit Confidence Week events on Twitter. Follow @LandsEndPR and tweet at #landsend. We will be announcing exclusive swimwear promotions, giving away great prizes and inspiring women to embrace their swimsuit beauty.

Thanks to Lands’ End and the Curvy Girl Guide for this great idea (and for the swim suit)!  I may be crazy, but I’ve conquered a big fear today!

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It’s a good thing my vanity needed a boost

Well if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I am just a smidge on the vain side.  And if you’ve been reading recently you know I’ve been struggling to get back to my vain old self since I had baby #3.   But I’ve finally over the past two months or so been getting back to putting on my makeup and trying to look purty before I leave the house every day, even if it is just to take Sophie to preschool.

So it was with great glee that I said “YES!” when Mary Kay asked me to review their new limited edition Weekender Collection.

It’s a great collection of lip and eye pencils that double as liner and color!  There’s some great nail colors in there, too.

I *love* all the colors.  My eyes are poppin’ these days in the Classic Navy and Turquoise Waters colors.  But my favorite, favorite FAVORITE thing that I can no longer live without and am going to have to order in mass quantity since it’s limited edition, is the eye pencil in “Whitewash”.  It is the PERFECT sparkly white highlighter color for my browbone and the inside corner of my eyes.  Can you see it?  I just used a neutral mineral eye color, Hazelnut, with the Whitewash in this photo.

new makeup

I want to marry it.  Seriously, y’all call up your Mary Kay consultant and get you some Whitewash pencil!

That’s the Weekender Collection lip pencil in Pink Sand on my lips.  Isn’t it pretty?  It’s a great daytime netural!  There are matching nail colors for it and the other lip color, Coral Stone. Love!  I have Coral Stone polish on my toes now.

Having tried them all, I can highly, highly recommend all these products in the Weekender Collection!  You can get them from your MK Consultant while supplies last, so hurry! If you don’t have a consultant, use mine, she’s wonderful and she ships for free even if you don’t live near me.

Thanks Mary Kay! I love this collection!

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Mary Kay gave me some sweet new makeup to try, and I did, and then I told you about it.  Pretty straightforward, eh?

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