white dress + the perfect wedges

I picked this dress up at Nordstrom at a ridiculously good sale price - $25 or something - earlier this summer and it has been worth every penny!  It has little pom poms on each tier, which is a detail I'm obsessed with, and is nicely lined (not nearly enough white dresses are!)   What is it about the heat that just makes you want to wear a white dress, always?  We snuck into the side yard to take these pics while Claire napped Sunday morning, before heading off to brunch with a cheerful and well-rested kiddo.   

Dress: Sun & Shadow, also comes in navy and less then $50!  (I'm wearing size small) 

Wedges: Jeffrey Campbell

Earrings: Kendra Scott - over half off! 

Sunglasses: Ray-Ban

the weekender/easter egg-citement at eckert's farms

As a parent, you get told a lot (especially when you have a baby) "enjoy these moments!  These days go by so fast!"  And sometimes, it's hard to take that advice to heart - like when you're grocery shopping and the cart is filled in the checkout line and suddenly you realize your baby's diaper has leaked in the carrier (yes, that happened to me last week) and really you have nothing else to do but let the checkout worker finish up and wait until you get out to the car to change the baby.  Bonus, you're covered in poo, the whole drive home.  

Moments like those I sometimes want to smack the well-meaning older ladies who say "enjoy this time!  Don't blink!"  

But then, THEN there are magical days like yesterday where I remember their advice and I truly get it.  Yesterday we woke up early to get dressed in some springy clothes, head out into the sunshine and drive to Eckert's Farm not far outside the city for Easter Egg-citement, and it was one of those days I know I'll be siphoning happiness from for a long time.  When Claire is 12 and sassing me I'll be thinking of yesterday, these memories, and how good that day was.  I must have taken 500 photos in an attempt to capture everything, every sweet smile, but I'll refrain (reluctantly) from posting ALL of them here.  These are a few of my favorites!  

 

 This is how excited Claire was when I told her we were going to Eckert's!  Actually, she just learned how to clap and so EVERYTHING gets a standing ovation from Claire!  She's our biggest (tiny) fan!

 

saturday style + whisk bake shop

Saturday afternoon we had nothing much at all to do, so we decided to wander around Cherokee Street for a bit.  We don't spend nearly enough time in that neighborhood, but since I've started working at Nebula while our sitter stays with Claire, I figured it might be in my best interest to scope out all the good coffee & tea joints.  

It was a really gorgeous day in St. Louis - a little overcast, but considering it's August the temperature was amazing.  The perfect day to wear my Sonnet James Quincy dress and carry Claire in our Solly Baby wrap.  Also, I've developed a real love for my Birkenstocks.  Expect to see me wearing them ad infinitum, maybe even with socks come autumn...

Our first stop was Whisk Bakeshop, which is one of my favorite places for a treat & a coffee in St. Louis.  One of the best things about Cherokee is that it's a neighborhood comprised of entirely local enterprises - no chain stores or restaurants down here!  

 I mean, can you even get over those light fixtures??

We usually go to Whisk for the artisan popsicles (strawberry goat cheese anyone?) but since it wasn't so hot on Saturday we swapped that choice for a nanaimo bar.  I couldn't tell you why they called it that, but it was sort of like a way more indulgent Almond Joy.  

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 Claire slept through the entire afternoon, taking about a 3 hour nap in her wrap.  Nothing better than a low-key afternoon exploring our city.  The next time you're down on Cherokee, we definitely recommend making a stop at Whisk!  

worth it/quality sunglasses

one/two/three/four/five/six

Once upon a time in my early twenties, I resided firmly in the camp of cheap sunglasses.  I strongly believed that if I purchased myself a pair of nice ones, I'd lose them just as quickly as I do the plastic Forever 21 pairs that are scattered throughout my car at any given time.  Truth be told, I probably would have - and did once, on a float trip a few years back.  If you are now the proud owner of a pair of river-rescued folding wayfarers in tortoise, please be nice to them.  

Now I am (the obviously super mature and adult age of) 25, and my main activity on sunny summer weekends doesn't involve nearly the quantity of alcohol it once did, so lo-and-behold!  I am a person capable of owning a nice pair of sunglasses for as long as I please.  Darrell, however, not so much.  He is a prolific loser/breaker of sunglasses.  Although I find that to be true of men in general, have you ever noticed how much more often they lose things than women do?  And how often it's us that happens to find whatever's lost?  So Darrell has one pair of nice sunglasses, and then he borrows from my embarrassingly large collection of Ray-Bans with close supervision.  Sometimes, on occasion, Fitz borrows them as well.  

I thought before it gets well into summer we'd all better get ourselves a new pair for 2014, and these are my picks!  I already tracked down pair #3 on eBay last week, and I love them.  Note though, that not all of these are Karen Walker-crazy expensive.  Pairs four and six are from my favorite affordable eyewear site, Warby Parker.  Darrell really needs a pair with prescription lenses since he doesn't often wear contacts, and since you can get these WITH the prescription for a ridiculously awesome price, I might trust him......might.  

These particular pairs aren't available quite yet, they're part of a sneak peek of the summer line for Light Sleeper, Heavy Dreamer readers.  For now I would definitely check out what they already have in store - you can request up to 5 trial pairs of glasses or sunglasses for free (yes, 100% free, including free shipping) to try on at home - just another reason they're so awesome.  

the weekender

Sometimes I feel as though each Friday kicks off an inevitable contest to have the "best weekend ever" after the workweek, and this weekend I think we won!  Of course that's easier at the lake, but I feel like the makings of a perfect day are pretty much universal.  

 Consider this post the official Light Sleeper, Heavy Dreamer guide to the perfect (lazy!) spring weekend.  

Step one: wake up in the morning of your own accord - no alarm clocks! Eat asiago cheese bagels &  fruit for breakfast with a big mug of Dunkin' Donuts coffee while watching the weekend news and reading blogs.  Shower & get ready for a day out on the boat at a snail's pace.  This may or may not include a quick trip to Target to buy a new hat (but it probably should.)  Pack your hat and your favorite sunglasses and a tote bag, and head down to the dock once you feel like eating lunch.  

sunglasses: ray ban (on sale!), hat: target, bag: old navy, and I had the embroidery done

Step two: make your handsome husband pose for some cutesy photos on the dock while the boat lift lowers into the water.  Make good use of your new hat in said photos.  

Step three: order a mocktail with your lunch, because Pina Coladas are yummy, rum or no rum.  

Step four: sit in the sun watching the boats and chatting about nothing much at all until you realize that it's time for more food! Head home to watch a movie, and eat dinner & some ice cream, of course.  Go to bed at 10, exhausted & happy from being in the sun for so many hours.  

Step five: rinse and repeat the next day (this time for brunch, because of course it's Sunday) potentially in a cuter outfit.  

hat - target, dress - loft

Other exciting (okay, to me) things that happened this weekend: 

I finally ordered a few samples of Le Labo perfumes I've been dying to try, because I'm almost out of Coco Mademoiselle.  Darrell just has a naturally stuck-up nose - he won't even notice it, let alone compliment it, unless it's....well, let's just say not cheap.  On the upside, more reason to buy fancy perfume!  I'll keep you updated on whether or not I decide their scents are worth the splurge.  The packaging alone....I mean the bottles are basically decoration.  

My Sonnet James dresses finally came!  I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical of whether or not they'd fit.  I ordered them all back in February when I was um, much smaller, but the dresses were supposed to work for pregnancy and after.  Well, they were all perfect!  When does that ever happen?  They're stretchy of course, and the fabric is pretty fantastic.  They're super fitted now, which is actually more flattering during pregnancy, and I think they'll be perfectly relaxed and casual later.  The packaging was adorable, each dress came in a bag with suckers and a little kids toy.  Also, I got a promo code I thought I'd share with my order: they have a few extra dresses in stock that you can check out here, and get $10 off with sjfriend10!  

I managed to snag my first pair of Karen Walker sunglasses on eBay last week after stalking them for quite a while, and they showed up too.  These are the "Helter Skelter" style.  I suppose time will tell whether or not I'm cool enough for Karen Walker sunglasses (debatable.)  Sometimes I think I'd rather buy something online just because of how fun it is to get packages, which is probably incredibly silly, but tell me you don't sort of feel the same!