maternity style 14/brunch

wearing: isabella oliver leggings, anthropologie shirt (old), banana republic jacket (old),  j crew factory clutch (old but, some super pretty spring options here), target shoes, michael kors watch (old, but I love this one as well)

This past Saturday we decided to venture outside our comfort zones of Rooster & Southwest Diner, and head to Cherokee street to try a new brunch spot.  Melt was better than we expected - I'm already scheming how to get Darrell back there next weekend.  The restaurant itself looks like something you'd see in Portlandia - coffee pot chandeliers, an old telephone booth, and those chicken salt & pepper shakers?  The hoarder in me kind of died over the whole place.  

I had the "Violet Beauregarde" (rad name for blueberry waffle) and Darrell had the "Bleu Ox" which is basically a ton of brisket & bleu cheese (as that's what he tends to order when we venture out of our vegetarian kitchen) and both were stellar!  My only comment - get your order "stacked" - portions aren't gigantic and you'll totally want the second waffle.  

Since it had dipped back down to COLD Saturday, I decided to just wear out the last of my autumn clothes and give in to the weather.  I would however, now consider myself firmly done with winter, and I even made the bold move of packing up the last of my winter coats.  I don't care if that means I have to freeze in a trench coat for a few more days - I just can't bear wearing them anymore!  Thankfully weather.com says we're headed straight into spring.  Any day it jumps above 60 degrees we've been going to the park for long walks, which are my current favorite form of exercise.  

Any awesome new restaurants you've tried in St. Louis lately?  Any weekend outings now pretty much revolve around food (for me at least) so I'm always looking for a new spot to try!  

maternity style 11

top and bracelet (old): anthropologie, leggings (maternity): isabella oliver, boots: frye, similar

So a little wardrobe update - as of recent, I have not been so into buying official "maternity" clothes!  Earlier on in my pregnancy, buying maternity felt like a rite of passage - it was something I wanted to do because I was so excited about being pregnant, and since I had a while to wear everything it seemed purposeful.  Now, with only about 3.5 months left to go, I'm more in the market for pieces I can make work both before and after the baby gets here, spring through summer.    

Sonnet James, who I featured last week, is one brand I went to for such clothes, but their pre-sale dresses don't ship until April (which is probably good, because I would very likely just start wearing them anyways, and freeze to death).  My Isabella Oliver dresses also feel like a good long term investment, although their fitted silhouette may not be so flattering immediately post baby!  Other than that, there isn't just one brand that I consider a go to for before and after versatility - any brand from Forever 21 to Free People to J.Crew will often carry pieces that have just enough stretch or flow to work with a bump.  This top in particular is by Anthropologie, and after seeing another blogger wear it I had a good feeling about it working well with a bump!  I checked if it was in stock at my local store, popped over, and was lucky enough that the last one in my size had a small flaw (a tiny tear in the seam) that got me $30 off and took all of 5 minutes to stitch up.  These kinds of finds are what I'm looking for to carry me through, but won't make it feel as though I'm spending money on something I'll wear once.  

maternity style 10

wearing: dress - forever21, similar, coat - bb dakota, similar, boots - frye, similar, scarf - h&m, similar, leggings - old navy maternity, belt - Darrell's from j.crew

 I woke up at 5 am this morning, for no real reason at all.  I didn't have a bad dream, no anxiety happening.  Just awake.  I read about this happening during pregnancy but I hope it doesn't continue, because I'll probably be a legitimate zombie by 3 pm.  Either way, mostly what I was wondering was what the heck you do at 5 am when it's freezing out?  

Apparently, if you're me you watch the Bachelor (which is just okay this season, and I kind of hate Juan Pablo) and Pretty Little Liars (I clearly have impeccable taste in television), then you pay some bills online, write a blog post, and drive to Hardee's for a breakfast sandwich and orange juice.  And now we're going to end this ramble of a post with my weekly "please spring get here soon" complaint, and just hope that next week's forecast of temperatures in the 60s is real and not just a cruel joke.  

the name game + maternity style 09

wearing: jacket & tunic (runs small) - old navy, leggings - isabella oliver, sneakers - new balance, scarf - crazy old, wal-mart maybe?  

These are not iPhone photos, these were actually taken with my fancy camera's self timer....which I'm obviously not good at, but I was determined to get in an outfit post this week despite my time constraints and it happened!  So I'm going to call that a win.  Photos taken in my parents lovely apartment - I intend to purloin that baby grand piano someday for our future little piano players, once we upgrade to something larger than 700 square feet.  

Speaking of babies (when am I NOT on here lately, really?), since we already know the baby's gender, you may be wondering what we'll name her.  

Well, we had names chosen from before we knew I was even pregnant.  Darrell and I are both really decisive and we both completely agreed on our favorites.  How lucky am I, right?  

But just for fun I thought I would ask: any suggestions?  Any favorite names right now?  

To give you an idea, here were some of the others we considered that didn't make the cut (but maybe for a future baby!)  We both tended to favor really classic names that haven't been super popular recently.  

For a Girl

Eloise

Ophelia

Noelle

Elizabeth

Sloan

Clara

For a Boy

Aiden

James

Gideon

Leopold

John

Henry