Maternity Dresses

Let's talk maternity fashion. This is a topic that I haven't really touched on before, well, because I've never been pregnant until now. Granted, I've styled pregnant women, but I wasn't about to act like an expert on my blog without fully understanding and experiencing pregnancy. I'm obviously ready now because I have a bun in the oven and none of my clothes fit. I'm such a button-down shirt, skinny jeans type of girl, so it has been a REALLY big change to be wear nothing but dresses - MAXI dresses for that matter. I've never owned one until now. You may be asking yourself, "Why isn't she just wearing maternity pants or leggings?" Well, because the thought of anything tight even close to my stomach sounds terrible. Not to mention, the summer months are just around the corner and dresses will be a better investment.

So, before I list some of my favorite places to find maternity wear. Let me also say that I don't think I'll ever buy a dress that is actually classified as maternity for two reasons. 1. The price is marked WAY up. 2. They don't fit as well because they are made similarly to one-size-fits-all. Small, medium or large just doesn't cut it when buying a dress. No worries though because I've found plenty of other dresses at big box stores

My favorite places to shop right now are TJ Maxx and Marshalls. They are owned by the same company, so you can just go to which ever one is closest to you. They have fabulous prices and a huge selection of maxi dresses and maxi skirts!

Next in line is Old Navy. They just got a ton of really cute dresses in, and of course at decent prices. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to spend major dough on something I'm only going to wear for nine months. You may say to yourself, "I'll wear this for my next pregnancy too." Even though I'm not there yet, I've had plenty of women tell me that their body is so different the second time around that most of their maternity wear doesn't work. Also, trends change over the span of a couple of years. The likelihood that you'll even want to wear the same thing is slim to none. If by chance, you don't mind three dollar signs, shopbop.com has a lot of pretty things.

Victoria Secret is another wonderful place to find dresses. They even have built in bra support with many of them. I would definitely wait for a sale before buying one full price though. Sales happen so often at VS.

Also, Express, a place I rarely think twice about, just rolled out a ton of beautiful maxi dresses. Again, I would wait for a sale before purchasing something.

If you have some favorite stores that you like to shop for maternity clothes, please tell me! I'd love to hear!

For those of you that don't mind wearing pants, I'll be sure to post some other tips and tricks to make your bump look cute soon!

My Favorite Wedges to Date

This past weekend I headed into my favorite discount clothing store, TJ Maxx, to look for some shoes for my sister in law. I was successful in finding shoes for her AND for me. haha! I scored my FAVORITE wedges to date. They might even in my top 5 of all time...So what are they?

BCBGeneration Tempa Wedges. They are THE most comfortable AND attractive shoe. Seriously, I don't think Born or Soft has anything on these guys. The elastic around the foot keeps me feeling comfortable, as well as the built in arch support.

I bought these shoes in brown, but they also come in beige and black. However, I think dark brown is going to be a beautiful color for fall, so I plan to wear these shoes through October.

What's your most comfortable shoe?

White Denim = Bad Idea

You may or may not heard that white denim skinny jeans are one of the summer staples for 2010. Well, I finally scored my pair of jeans at TJ Maxx last week ($12), and let me just say that I'm glad I only paid $12. My mind must have been clouded by wanting to be on trend rather than thinking, "Alex, you can barely keep white tank tops from getting stained. What makes you think you can keep white pants from the same death sentence?!"

I wore them ONE DAY, and then got dirty! I washed them and put them on this morning...Stain! Stain!!!! Right on my knee, and I can't get it out with bleach. Grrrrrr!!!!

Word to the wise - This is not a trend worth partaking in.

Shades

Even though I can't allow myself to buy expensive sunglasses anymore (I always lose my sunglasses), I really enjoy them and think they give a first impression of one's personal style. Anything goes in fashion right now...You can wear aviators, Ray-bans or Jackie O. glasses and you wouldn't be "out of date." I recently found some awesome A|X glasses at T.J. Maxx for $15.00, and they are some of the best glasses I've ever had. Browsing through ShopStyle.com I found a huge variety...Which ones would you wear?