Tag Archives: jeans

Blue, Cream and Gold.. Distressed Jeans and Sweater Weekend Wear

I rarely do fashion posts.. time, setting up the camera takes a *little* more time and effort than snapping a selfie on a cell phone.. and my pro camera skills are (very) limited. Lauren was able to get these a few weeks ago before I had to whisk the kids away for a nap.

Because I dress up for work and dress down for time at home (read sweats and PJs!), it can be hard to find ‘in between’ clothes – for example when I actually want to look somewhat put together on a weekend. Because my kids are at that wild toddler stage (2 and 4) – where they constantly seem to be either covered in food and reaching little blueberry stained or applesauce covered hands towards me.. or running from me.. my “on duty” mom clothes have to allow for sprinting and chasing, tumbling, sitting on the ground, and getting food thrown on me. Maybe this cream colored knit sweater wasn’t the best choice, BUT it takes a heavy duty wash just fine, as do the jeans, so it worked out..

I can’t wear much jewelry around the kids because Anders is a little monkey and reaches for anything shiny or colorful and wants to play with it.. so I just avoid long necklaces and earrings for now. I did add a little sparkle to the outfit with some gold sneaker flats. Super comfy, super fun.

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This little nugget was ready for his nap!

 

On me..

Sweater – Gap cream knit sweater from a few years ago.. (similar here Gap Open Knit Sweater)
Jeans – Banana Republic Distressed Skinny Jean in Tall (I’m ~5’11” and it was a little long even for me, but perfect for rolling up into a cuff)
Shoes – Banana Republic Brenna Slip-On Sneaker (super comfy)

On the kids..

All thrifted clothes.. I’ve been having good luck finding little button down shirts and jeans for Anders at ThredUP.com.

dit-elle-Esther

A Pop of Fuchsia for Gray Fall Days

Inspired by the bright pink flowers on Camelia trees, and especially in winter or days when all you want to wear is black, gray, blues.. a fabric flower clip adds such a nice pop of color to the palette! Flower clips are easy to find online or in stores or make one with a flower from a craft store and clip. I’ll add that to my DIY & kid fun project and publish whenever we get there! 🙂

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Lauren’s daughter Maya was entertaining us by digging in the dirt and having a lot of fun! 🙂

Jeans: Silver Jeans Co. On sale now. 🙂

dit-elle-Esther

No cut hemmed jeans

I may be the only person still wearing boot-cut jeans these days.. but I had to retire some pairs of jeans recently and in a pinch one day (it was a classic day in our house where laundry was back-logged, I didn’t have time to go on a hunt for the perfect pair of jeans, and didn’t want to spend a fortune either..) so I dusted off this pair of Silver jeans which were too long and had been sitting in my closet for a few years..

I hemmed them using a quick and easy, no-cut, technique – this is not the “fold under and sew” way, which removes the bottom edge!

Here’s how!

First put jeans on and measure exactly how much you need to shorten them by. For example if you want to take an inch off, you’ll fold up a big cuff and then pin the 1″ into the bottom portion of the cuff (1/2″ front/back). Once you’ve pinned it, turn the cuff down, try the jeans back on to make sure the seam is going to hit where you want it and the length is good.

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Fold up jeans as shown – your seam will be where the legs get shortened – so determine first how much you are needing to hem them by. I took an inch off these.

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After you’ve sewn the cuff inside out, fold it over and sew a security seam to pin down the fold and create an edgier look (also see above).

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Once sewn, flatten, pin the fold downward and sew another security seam to create a bit of an edge and set the fold.

 

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Successful shortening of the jeans! 🙂

dit-elle-Esther

What to wear to a video shoot

What to wear to a video shoot? I’m still learning, but here are some tips I’ve gathered on the way.

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Do

  • Do wear solid colors
  • Bright colors are good – they often seem brighter in person than on screen
  • Neutral and muted colors and pastels work very well too
  • Do wear make-up
  • Do wear fun shoes!

Don’t

  • Don’t wear patterns or stripes, it confuses the camera
  • Don’t wear pure black or white as the camera will boost the contrast and white can seem very bright and black can look very dark
  • Don’t wear jewelry that jingles or makes noise when you move as the mic tends to be super sensitive
  • Don’t wear glasses if possible because they can pick up glare from the lights and be distracting on camera. Tthis is a classic “Don’t do as I do, just do as I say!” since I wore glasses during my video shoot below – but I was reading a teleprompter and felt more comfortable in glasses. Bottom line – do what’s best for you!

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Most importantly – wear something you FEEL good in! This will boost your confidence and if you are comfortable or uncomfortable – it will show up in your body language and face.

When in doubt, bring multiple outfits and have the camera operator do a quick on-camera check. Ahem.. there might be a reason my daughter has three outfit changes before leaving the house in the morning..! 😛blog Gap Sweater Gap Skinny On Air-6On me…

  • Jeans- these are my basic skinny jeans from GAP
  • Top – GAP and sorry I can’t find anything quite like it! It’s a light sweater with sequin embellishments at the front. Something like a simple button down would work, see this one from A.Byer on Amazon or something simple like a crew neck from Boden
  • Shoes- Bandolino strappy wedges, similar at Shoes.com

dit-elle-Esther

Pink, Blue and Turquoise oh my!

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This is my basic ‘mom uniform’. Jeans & tee-shirt & flip-flops. Black/gray/navy hues are my general go-to colors, but I’ve been trying to add some “bright” to that. Can’t get much brighter than punch pink and turquoise beads!

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A friend gave me the chew-beads when Anders was born. It’s one of those things I would never have bought for myself, but as it turned out WE love them, Anders loves them and Ava loves them!

In fact, I love them so much that I wore them out with girlfriends one evening. We were at a restaurant and the waitress (a clearly hip gal in her early 20s – and I feel totally old writing that! haha!) asked where I got the beads? I told her they were chewbeads and any maternity/baby clothes retailer carried them.. She looked at me in horror, like she wished she hadn’t asked. “They totally work even without a kid attached to them…” I tried. But the conversation was over, LOL. Seriously though – they are great, add a splash of color to any outfit! 🙂blog Pink Tee Gap Skinny-5On me…

Jeans- Basic GAP skinnies
Top- GAP, looks like this one on Amazon.com
Necklace- Chewbeads
dit-elle-Esther