the babies are bankrupting us already

Things are getting more real in Babyville as my belly grows and the impending arrival of two wee ones continues to sink in. Helping us feel reality? Baby stuff has begun to arrive in our house.

I knew all along that one of our bigger purchases would be a stroller. A lot of my friends with only one baby don’t wind up using their stroller all that much– it’s usually easier to just strap the kid to your chest, or carry him, or put him in the car seat and carry it, than it is to haul out a big bulky thing and wheel it around. However, with two babies, that’s less of an option. Pretty much any time I attempt to go somewhere in public with the babies without Jon, I’m going to need a stroller, so it needs to be one I like. Unfortunately, I hated most of the double strollers I looked at. The tandem ones (a friend described them as “fighter jet cockpits”) seem long and unwieldy, but the side-by-sides sometimes don’t fit through doors and store aisles. And the strollers I didn’t hate? Well, they were really, REALLY expensive. I fell in love with the Baby Jogger City Select, because it’s not ridiculously huge, it takes 2 infant carseats (actually a rarity in double strollers, as most are meant for parents with two kids of different ages rather than twins), and the seats can be configured a bajillion different ways. It was expensive, but not as expensive as many of the fancy stroller brands, but still, we were not so in love with the idea of spending $650+ for a stroller, and I figured there was no way I’d ever get one.

But then I found one for $499. And then I read my friend Suzanne’s rave review of her Baby Jogger City Select, which she uses for her baby and her toddler, and when she told me even her husband agreed the stroller was a good buy even at full price…well, we decided it was the stroller for us. I’m not crazy about the fact that it’s white, but with the $150 we saved, I’m sure we can buy some Scotchguard or something. We’re both pretty excited for it to arrive. Maybe we’ll have to put Tinycat in it to test it out or something!

In even more exciting news, we don’t need a new car. We went to Babies R Us, where they kindly let you test carseats in your actual car before you buy, and discovered that the Chicco Key Fit 30 actually fits in our car on the passenger and middle seat while still allowing Jon to scoot the drivers’ seat into a comfortable position. In fact, he can even put one behind the drivers’ seat and still drive, though we like being able to have one of us sit in the back with the babies, at least at the start.

So, lil Pontiac Vibe, you will remain with us a while longer. We picked out the orange and grey version (in stock it was that or black/gray), and orange happens to be Jon’s favorite color. We’ve put the seats in the car and driven around the block, so we know it works. Lots of people keep telling me I need a minivan, including the ladies on the Mothers of Multiples message boards, but somehow people in Europe manage to have multiple children in small cars, so I’m sure we can make it work. We have the added incentive of this car being paid off and not wanting to add car payments on top of baby expenses, so we don’t even need Tim Gunn to tell us to make it work.

I’m hoping the excitement over fun baby stuff can help distract me until our next doctor’s appointment on the 16th. I’m hoping we can get a peek at the genders then, and the anticipation is killing me!

trying to live la pura vida

I’m back from an amazing week in Costa Rica. Did you miss me?

I want to write all about the trip, and kept a journal while we were there in order to do so, but our camera broke while we were there, and my husband’s iPhone, which became our backup camera, was left in San Jose. Through a strange and amazing series of circumstances which I will surely tell you about later, the phone is on its way back, but I’m not going to write about the bulk of the trip until I have some pictures of beautiful Costa Rica to share as well. I really fell in love with the country and the people we met there.

One thing people in Costa Rica say a lot is “pura vida.” It literally translates to “pure life” but can also be used to sort of mean “full of life.” It’s definitely true of Costa Rica, it was true of our trip, and it’s something I’m trying to make true of my life as well. As the comments on the “No Clothes” post keep rolling in and people affirm the challenge, I’ve been pondering my motivations for the challenge and for my desire to begin to live a simpler life in general. Part of it is that I know that for me, the cycle of wanting and buying and wanting and buying is not actually leading to a happier, more joyful life, but rather a vicious cycle of materialism. And another part of it is, I don’t want the things that give me happiness, like a pretty new dress, to be tainted by the fact that they’re bad for the environment and made by very poor people in very poor working conditions. A life of “pura vida” would be about life and happiness for all, not life and happiness that is dependent on others’ suffering and oppression.

When we were in San Jose, we stayed in an amazing house-turned-bed-and-breakfast that we found through AirBnB. Our host, when we asked what brought him to Costa Rica, told us about the day he was liberated from a life of comfort and material things the day a wildfire destroyed his nice house and everything he owned in Southern California. And that’s the way he describes that experience: liberating. Now he lives in a lovely condo in San Jose and shares the gifts of hospitality and good conversation with everyone blessed to stay with him. And I do mean blessed– hospitality, shared meals, and good conversation are practically the sacraments of my faith.

Over the course of the week, I just kept ruminating on what it would be like to feel liberated from materialism. I don’t mean liberated from actually having things, or appreciating beauty, or even from buying things, but I do mean liberated from the never-ending desire of my current shopping habits. For example– I like to browse lots of style blogs, largely for inspiration on how to wear things I already have, or things to DIY for myself or my home– they inspire my creativity, and that’s always a good thing. However, they also often inspire my desire to shop and spend. For example, while perusing my backlog accumulated in Google Reader during a week without my computer, I saw, and immediately wanted this dress from Ruche: Why? Because it’s a very good knockoff of a Marc Jacobs dress I’ve been coveting ever since Michelle Obama wore it (source): The Marc Jacobs version was $685. The Ruche version, which is sold out, was $43. Why? Well, the knockoff is 100% polyester (read: made from petroleum, not very breathable) and “imported” (read: probably not manufactured under the best of conditions). I could (were it not sold out, and had I not taken a no shopping for clothes vow) buy that $43 dress and simply enjoy its beauty and the feeling that I had scored a great look that I had long admired at an insane price. But I’d be bothered by the fact that it’s a blatant ripoff of something someone else created, and I’d be more bothered by the fact that it was made of oil and most likely sewn under not great working conditions. And the sad fact is, the person I am right now, that person can easily say to herself, “BUT IT’S CUUUUTE. AND SO CHEAP!” I don’t want to be that person. That person who says she cares about living “la pura vida” and advocates for the environment and social justice, but is willing to throw all that away for a cute dress. Maybe one day I’ll actually live up to my own values, but it’s hard. Anyone else out there on the same sort of journey?

not shopping, and a chambray skirt

Thanks to my “no shopping” post being featured on the WordPress homepage, a lot of new faces have showed up around here in the last two days! Welcome! Even though I said I wouldn’t be posting daily outfit photos, I will be occasionally sharing photos of items I’ve sewn, and possibly particularly interesting outfits remixed from items in my closet. Though seriously, I need to get a tripod and some self confidence, because I feel sublimely silly posing while my husband snaps photos with our 5 year old digital camera in my kitchen, home to the only bare wall I could find (I like art), while also trying to keep two large dogs from hopping into the picture (I was standing near their food bowls and it was almost dinner time, so they got rather excited).

I thought I’d clarify a bit on what motivated the no-shopping challenge. I identify as a follower of Jesus, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how my consumerism lines up with that identity. I read Shane Claibourne’s Jesus for President with a book group at my church, and I’ve also been reading a lot of Pete Rollins. Basically, I think I undermine my statements about following Jesus and trying to love people like he loved when my dollars every day are a) going toward my own comfort instead of those in need, and b) are perpetuating a system of slavery and oppression in other parts of the world, where the poor are exploited just to make my clothes. And yet: there’s no other way to say this, I want to look cute. Yesterday, while out buying a must-have hair product, in an apparent act of self-torture, I wandered into Forever21, “just to look.” I saw about 20 things that I really wanted. “Wouldn’t that little dress be a great beach cover-up for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica?” I didn’t buy anything, but I realized what an addict I am. I can’t say that I’ll swear off buying clothes forever, and only buy from thrift stores or make my own, though that would probably be ideal. I can’t even say I’ll never buy something from Forever21 again. But I am going to spend the next several months abstaining from buying clothes (I have a feeling trips to Target are going to be torture! I also spotted a gray striped jersey dress there yesterday that I really wanted.),  and I hope to learn something from the experience.

One area I do hope to improve are my sewing skills. I am confident that I can learn to make a lot of the clothes that I want, for myself, for less money than I would spend in retail stores, and in the process, with confidence that my clothes weren’t made in a sweatshop. Now, when I want an item, if it looks “sewable,” I pin it to my Sewing Inspiration board on Pinterest. One thing I had been pinning a lot of lately was chambray skirts (click image to be taken to Pinterest page which links to original source):

So, armed with several skirts under my sewing belt, I decided this covetable item was something I could make myself. And sure enough, I followed this tutorial to make myself an adorable (if I do say so myself) chambray skirt:

I used a double layer of chambray for the skirt, to prevent sheerness and give the skirt more of the full look I was going for. I have to say, I think it turned out just as cute as several of the skirts I had pinned!

no clothes til december

my actual closet.

Wait. That title seems misleading. I’m not going to be running around naked between now and Christmas. What I mean is, I’m not buying any clothes between now and December. What the what? (Sorry. I quote Liz Lemon ALL THE TIME. Jon thinks people actually think I can’t speak properly because of the number of times per day I say “I want to go to there.”)

I’ve been feeling more than a little convicted lately about my consumerism, and the way in which my shopping habits don’t really line up with my values, and the way in which I spend money like it’s going out of style. (Me, however? Never going out of style.) So, I’m trying to take a break from shopping. This isn’t some sort of blog stunt. I’m not going to wear the same dress every day for a year like that one chick did, or one of those “me made” monthly things I see on some sewing blogs, where the talented seamstresses wear only clothes made with their dainty hands for an entire month. (Quite frankly, I haven’t sewn enough stuff to wear for a week, let alone a month.)

And I’m not going to post pictures of my outfits every day, because, for one, Jon would be really annoyed with having to take pics of me by about day 3, and in the warm weather, you’d all be bored looking at pictures of me wearing various tank tops with various skirts, and in the winter, you’d be totally over my rotating uniform that consists of skinny jeans (ok, let’s be honest, I wear jeggings, deal with it), sweaters, scarves, and my beloved boots. I wish I were a cute style blogger with a top knot and bold lipstick and a seeming unending supply of vintage frocks, kooky necklaces, and colorful scarves, posed in front of a wall of artfully peeling paint that contrasts just so with my adorable ensemble, but the truth is, my style is cute but predictable. And I can’t be arsed to style my hair any other way but the same way I style it every single day. Because I have half the hair of a normal person, and it makes the world’s teeniest top knot.

Instead of all that, this is just a little personal challenge to wear the clothes I’ve got, which I’m positive is more than the average person, thanks largely to the fact that I can and do still wear items I’ve had since high school (before you hate me, know that I’m NOT wearing the same pants size I wore in high school, by any stretch). I take up the entire closet in our bedroom, though I must point out (what is with me and the caveats today?) that our house was built in 1925 and thus the closets are teeny. I bought myself one new pair of jeans before my little challenge started, and I’m exempting underwear and white teeshirts/tank tops from the “clothing” category. Other than that, I have to wear what I have.

A sign of just how big my problem is? A new pair of shoes came in the mail yesterday. Jon, aware of my “no shopping for clothes” challenge, raised his eyebrows. Me: “What? Shoes don’t count as clothes! Plus they were only $20!”

my new sneaks.

Think I can make it?

I just left Verizon for an AT&T iPhone

Image via Flickr user smemon87 under a Creative Commons license.

When I first heard that Verizon was getting the iPhone in February, I thought: PERFECT! My 2 year contract with Verizon was up then, and I felt sort of loyal to them after having had Alltel and then Verizon since I got my first cell phone at age 16. After 2 years on a BlackBerry Pearl, I was more than anxious to get a new phone. My BlackBerry Pearl wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great. It didn’t have enough memory to hold more than a few apps. OK, wait, I forgot about the freezing. It WAS awful. In fact, at least 4 times a day, the stupid phone froze and gave me a spinny hourglass on my screen, at which point I’d have to pull out the battery and restart it. Other times it would randomly turn itself to silent, also requiring a reboot to fix the issue. I had come to hate it with every fiber of my being.

When Verizon announced the iPhone, I figured I’d be one of the first in line. Though I was briefly distracted by a BOGO deal on the top Droid phones, thinking that if I could get two Droid phones for $100 bucks, it would be worth it, that deal expired before our 2 year contract. By the time we were eligible for our upgrade, both Droids and iPhone were looking to cost us $200 each, and at that rate, I’d rather have an iPhone, as I’m a longtime Mac user and prefer the way they work.  I even woke up at 3 am to order iPhones for both my husband and me, at which point, I discovered that, although we already had a smartphone family share plan with unlimited texting, unlimited data, and 500 shared minutes, Verizon wanted to switch us to a different plan, offering basically all of the above except no more unlimited data, for $200 a month, or $70 more than we were already paying. Hell to the no. I may have been bleary eyed at 3 am, and caught up in iPhone fever, but I wasn’t going for that.  It felt like they were trying to dupe us into paying more for the same service, just because they had the iPhone.

My husband did some research and found out that we could get a similar plan from AT&T for only about $150 a month. The choice was easy. Goodbye, Verizon. Hello, AT&T. Today we went to an AT&T store and the employees could not have been nicer or more helpful. They were all very curious about why we’d be leaving Verizon just as our wait for them to get the iPhone was finally over. When we told them Verizon was charging $50 more a month for a similar plan, as well as not offering the discount AT&T gave us because of my husband’s workplace, they laughed and said they’d have to thank Verizon for sending us their way.

Now Jon and I are both in possession of shiny iPhone 4′s. I’m taking suggestions for apps, and already playing more Words with Friends games than I can keep up with. After 2 years with my BlackBerry Pearl, I feel rather like a caveman who was just handed a wheel. WHAT IS THIS MIRACULOUS TECHNOLOGY, AND WHAT DO I DO WITH IT? Typing on the touchscreen is definitely an improvement.

I just wanted to share our story amidst all the hype about Verizon getting the iPhone and talk of people fleeing AT&T for a supposedly better network. Despite having been with Verizon for almost a decade, they thought nothing of jacking up our rates, so we thought nothing of leaving them behind for a better deal.

Now, who’s got tips for a new iPhone user?

current obsessions

I’m not one of those adorable, beautifully photographed lifestyle bloggers with a perfectly curated life. But, I read plenty of those sites, and I secretly love it when people share the pretty things they’re obsessed with. And, in that spirit, thought I’d share some of my current favorite things.

When I was a teen, everyone I knew had a pair of Doc Martens. I *begged* my mother for a pair, but she said they were too expensive for someone whose feet might still be growing and said I could have a pair when my feet stopped growing. Well, my feet haven’t grown since 6th grade, it turns out, and I never got those Docs. Since I recently discovered the flower-printed variety, I think I might need to call in that old promise so I can have a pair of cute ass-kicking shoes. Hey, Mom! My feet stopped growing! Can I have a pair of these?

Don’t you think I need a pair?

Now, we all know that I love my vintage bike. BUT. That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes window shop for the bike of my dreams, either online or in the fancy new bike shop that just opened near my house. It turns out the bike of my dreams is an Electra Amsterdam. Anyone wanna buy me an $800 bike? That fancy new bike shop sells them! They’re SO pretty, and they’ve got all the things I want in a bike: good looks, multiple gears (this is why I hate cruisers), fenders, chain guards, lights, and racks for baskets and panniers. See:

The other day when I went home for my Lil’est Sister’s 13th birthday, my mom showed me some amazing photos of foxes playing in their back yard. Two of the cutest little foxes you ever did see, just frolicking and playing. Then, this morning, she sent me this gorgeous picture of a fox playing in her newly snowy backyard:

Now I’m obsessed with foxes. And I recently saw a documentary on dogs which featured domesticated foxes. It spurred a new dream: a snuggly pet fox. They’re like the best of both worlds between dogs and cats. But I bet they’re hard to potty train. So, how about some cute fox stuff instead? (each picture links to the Etsy listing for the item)

I vote that we make buffalo the next cute trendy animal. Think it could happen?

What are you obsessed with lately?

share the love

Preface: I love Valentine’s Day. I don’t love Hallmark Valentine’s Day, where you have to buy schmoopy cards and DeBeers Diamonds and Victoria’s Secret lingerie and 1-800-Flowers red roses by the dozen with a box of Godiva chocolates to boot. What I love is red and pink (two of my favorite colors), construction paper garlands, hearts of all sorts, and general proclamations of affection. Sure, you can do all of this all the other days of the year, and you should, but it’s extra fun in February. In fact, I jumped the gun and rocked a pink sweater, a heart necklace, and red lipstick yesterday. All month, you’ll catch me looking like a living Valentine.

It’s been a while since I did an Etsy roundup, and I thought Valentine’s Day was the appropriate time–might as well put to good use the hours I spend finding beauties on Etsy and adding them to my ever-growing favorites list.

Now, I’m usually of the opinion that the best Valentine is a handmade one. The best Valentine Jon ever gave me, he made of markers and glitter. It was a Simpson’s joke and featured a train and said “I Choo Choo Choose You.” (Get a replica here.) Another time, he decorated a card with a poem from one of my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson. If you’ve got a Valentine, I highly recommend you go the handmade card route.

But if you don’t want to make a card yourself, buy one handmade by someone else! I took the liberty of making you a cool Valentine card shopping guide. Some of these cards are so cool, you could give your sweetheart a frame to go along with it, and he or she could hang it on the wall and enjoy it long after Valentine’s Day. (Click any image to be taken to the seller’s Etsy shop.)

OK, so this one's not frameable, but if you have a ninja wannabe in your life, this card from seller Cookie Bits is a sure hit.

This photo Valentine from seller NomadicNotebook is frame-able for sure.

friday frivolity: sarah shoes

One of my Twitter friends, BootsMC, has a post today about one of her favorite things: pricey heels.  Boots is a fellow Arkansan, so she will probably know what I mean when I say I do appreciate going to browse at the Park Plaza Mall Dillards in what my sister and I refer to as the Shoe Museum.  I appreciate the look of a ‘spensive heel.  I browse for them online and I drool over them in stores.  I just don’t happen to own any.

Part of this is the fact that I grew to my current height of a hair shy of 5’8″ in about the sixth grade, years before my peers hit their growth spurts.  I spent many gawky years towering over my friends, and as a result, never wanted to wear anything that might make my freakish height all the more freakish. I know people not gifted with height say they hate hearing tall skinny girls talk about how painful their adolescences were, but that was my experience. I was the “walking toothpick” and “Olive Oyl.”  So instead of spending my teen years learning to wear heels with grace, I shunned them.  And now, as an adult, my gait in a pair of stilettos is best described as “drunken baby giraffe.”  It’s not pretty, y’all.

by my own bootstraps

I’m a fan of the skinny jeans tucked into boots look.  In the summer I’m all about skirts and dresses with bare legs and ballet flats, but in the winter I don’t want even one inch of ankle to feel a bit of a chill.  (Hell, I don’t want one inch of anything to feel one bit of chill, and so you’ll see me bundled from head to toe out at the bus stop in the mornings, though that didn’t stop THREE people from honking at me this morning!)  It’s hard to find any shoes that look cute with socks, so the solution is to just wear boots over pants, preventing anyone from seeing my socks, and preventing frigid air from making its way up my pantlegs.  Not to mention, you get to show off your cute boots, and I definitely want to show off my boots if I’ve made the investment.  The problem is that the pants scootch their way up inside the boots and I end up with baggy knees and annoying bunches around my ankles.

I thought one solution might be tighter jeans, and for a minute, I contemplated some jeggings (jean leggings), but was assured by my friends that there’d be an intervention if I dared to make the purchase. Then, via Consumerist, I learned that people are making little straps for turning normal pants into stirrup pants, keeping them from riding up when tucked into boots.  However, these straps cost from $9.99 (jeanstraps) to $25 (stirrupz). (Seriously? $25? INSANE!) And I could have a whole pair of jeggings for that cost…

I mentioned my problem to my sister, and she said she uses those straps made to keep sheets on beds to keep her pants in her boots. GENIUS.  They’re only around $5, and I found a set of four in the bedding section at Target. Way cheap and no shipping.  They’re a little too long for my purposes, and if I weren’t so low class I’d probably cut and sew them properly, but instead I shortened them using folding and safety pins.  I tried out my new style tool with skinny jeans and a pair of Frye boots I scored for the unheard of price of $70 while on Christmas break, and THEY WORKED.

So there ya go kids. This durn librul is telling you to pull yourself up by your homemade bootstraps.

Edited to include: I also found these jodhpur clips (for horseback riders) for around $3 on Amazon if you can’t find the sheet straps at Target or Walmart.

want one, purl two

In an attempt to shake off my blog-slacking, and because the slight chill in the air that’s shown up lately has me turning on the ceramic heater in my office more often than not, I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing things to keep me warm on Etsy, and thought I’d share some of my faves.  Click on any of the images to go straight to the listing for that item.

For one, I’m obsessed with fingerless gloves/convertable mittens.  It’s not THAT cold yet, but commuting in the cold last year taught me that if I want to be able to get my bus pass out of its holder and swipe it, I need full access to fingers and thumbs. I’m wishing I had one of these lovely pairs for this winter:

grey fingerless gloves from homelab. sadly sold out, but maybe more will show up soon, i hope?

fingerless mustard mittens, $35 from shadesofshadow. would look lovely with my blue peacoat!

long convertible mittens, $43 from iLzeDR. loses points for Twilight references in the description, but they look cozy and cute.

Of course, it’s not just my hands I need to keep warm! Can’t forget my head! What was that stat about losing most of your heat through your head? I can’t remember. Either way, I’m pretty sure I also lose a lot of heat through my icicle fingers and toes, but keeping my ears warm is high on my priority list.