Style Icon: Beth Ditto

Singer Beth Ditto is a fat, fabulous, feminist style icon and she is unapologetic about it! She's just like "Look at me. Look at my anchor tattoo! Look at all this glamour! I am a-mah-zing!" And we nod our heads in agreement.

She's best known for being the lead singer in "The Gossip." She is second-best known for wearing really, really cute things. Sometimes they're shiny! I like shiny dresses.

And this cloud dress is so cute! I want one! It makes me feel whiny. I want a cloud dress so bad. Sorry, this isn't about me. This is about Beth Ditto. Refocusing. 

Her style is fun and whimsical but also a little punk. She just looks great! Plus: Look how happy she is on her wedding day! 

Style Icon: Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller: Famed American playwright (You might have read "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible" in high school English), large-glasses wearer, pipe smoker  and Marilyn-Monroe marry-er.

I love that these two were married. Marilyn Monroe so wanted to be more than a sexy bombshell. She had a brain too! She read books! And she married one of America's greatest intellectuals. And while he was not Marilyn-level hot (who is?), he did look pretty good in a suit.. and he wore a lot of suits.

Add to that suit a great coat and a snazzy hat, and you're looking good. (Marilyn's looking pretty good too. I suppose that goes without saying.)

While I'm rhapsodizing about the suits, it's actually casual Arthur Miller I love the most. Look at how much fun he's having in the above photo! Look at his great hat! Look at his smooth dance skills!

And while their marriage lasted only five years, it looks like they really loved each other.

Remix: Polka dot coat

So, the other day, I was in car rider line (I'm a teacher, I was opening doors, doing my bit), and the school's literacy facilitator said she liked my coat and I was like "Thanks! I bought it when I dropped my son off at daycare for the first time because I had major anxiety!" It was a car rider line overshare. These things happen. The literacy facilitator nodded awkwardly and then we said zero other things to each other. 

It's true, though, this is the coat I bought when I was flipping the flippity floppity (that's my new non-swear word I'm trying to use) out. I dropped Thomas off at daycare for two hours. I went to Target. I saw a polka-dotted coat. I did not NEED this coat and yet I DID! So I bought it. And it made me feel better for like 30 seconds. This coat is the equivalent of brownie-filled cookies. 

But, really, it's better than brownie-filled cookies because while it only offered fleeting emotional comfort, it has offered physical comfort for more than a year! This coat is warm! It's cute! It has polka dots!

This is the second year it's been my go-to winter coat. It matches everything. According to me. 

I was at dinner once talking about stripes and polka dots and how I love them, and my friend was like "But you don't wear them together, do you?!" and when I said I did, she was totally horrified. Horrified, I say!

Truth be told, I think I look a little crazier when I match polka-dots with polka-dots. I don't think I look bad, I just always ask "Do these polka dots match these other polka dots?"...

And the answer is always "YES!" So I say: Yay to polka dots. Yay to statement coats. Yay to anxiety purchases, awkward overshares and matching circles and stripes!

Rainy day slouch

I wanted to wear something oversized and slouchy, and, boy, did this outfit fit the bill! It had been raining for days (weeks!) so the boots were necessary, but it was also unseasonably warm so the short sleeves worked fine.

Thomas's outfit is 100 percent thrifted. He's looking fab as always. We wore these outfits on one of the last days of winter break (Oh how I miss winter break) doing typical Mommy and Tommy things -- reading books, buying groceries, going to pet stores to look at the birds.

Sidenote: Robert is not on board with the "Mommy and Tommy time" adorable rhyme. In that: He does not want Thomas to be called Tommy. His solution: We'll just call me "Momas." This is obviously a ridiculous idea.

Loving It

Lately I've been loving...

1. Reading books

2, Pushing swings

3. Shopping at IKEA

4. Playing catch

5. Critter window shopping
(Straight up: PetCo/ PetSmart are now favorite places to kill a little time with the nugget. We kill that time dead while looking at snakes, hamsters, birds and the like!)