Black Shoes for Spring #1 - LL Bean Coastal Rain Skimmers

Realized I have a couple posts I've been mulling that fit this category. Today's Black Shoes for Spring are my new LL Bean Coastal Rain Skimmers. (#TA261027, $69, but I only paid $59 - thanks for the $10 Bean reward certificate, Mom!!)

Seriously, best set up ever - Mom has the Bean credit card. I get to order online with free shipping & monogramming and she gets the points. Win-win. I *do* pay her back, of course. In this case, she specifically gave me the reward because she knew I had been mulling over these shoes.

*****Update on 3/26/10 - Bean just announced yesterday that they are now, like Zappos, offering Free Shipping.  Period.  Free Shipping...that's it.  As they say now on their home page "No minimum order, no end date, just free."  Could somebody please cue the applause? 

According to the Bean website, these shoes were featured in O magazine in September 2010. Ok, so apparently I missed them this fall, otherwise I would have been all over them. It's a perfect marriage of the duck shoe and the ballet flat. So it pretty much suits me to a T. You all know how I love my ballet flats. I know J Crew has the cute rubber ballet flats but they are just too narrow for me, and show a bit too much toe cleavage for a well-functioning "rain shoe".

I got a 9 which...oh, I don't know, I hate shoe sizing. Let's just say I run between 9 and 9 1/2, so if you're worried, size down. Or get 2 sizes? I don't know...that's why I went ahead and tried them on in store. I do usually take a 9 in Bean shoes.

It's a really comfortable shoe. They are weatherproof, but leather so they breathe - no stinky feet, yay! And...well...here's their blurb:

Ideal for wet trips to the office or around town, these casual weatherproof shoes combine comfort and style with protective coverage for inclement weather. Pliable patent-leather upper is seam-sealed to keep water out. Thickly padded insole and a flexible rubber outsole give you much more cushioning than traditional skimmers. Rubber outsole adds traction on wet surfaces. Imported. Best with lightweight socks.

(right....like I wear socks unless I absolutely have to, i.e., with boots)

I was tempted by the blue but I just got a pair of navy patent mocs, so these looked too similar in the navy and I ended up with the black...which I wore today...yucky rainy day. So they were perfect.  (They also come in nautical red, bright yellow, and dark brown.)

I wore the skimmers with a JC black long sleeve tissue tee & cami, Loft denim mini, and black JC leggings.  I see now why Summerilla is always raving about her JC leggings.  Per Summerilla, she wears hers weekly, washes with no holes or fadin.  Love! Then accessorizing with above shoes, black scarf, ponytail & hoops, and topped off with my BR trench. 

It was a full day - mani/pedi in the AM (courtesy of gift certificate from Xmas - yeah, didn't use it when I had the cast on my right hand), then chiro visit working out an issue with my left rotator cuff muscle, and then up to school to help in M's class and in E's Jump Rope for Heart session.  (and back up to school to pick up some left-behind homework...sigh...)  A good outfit for my day.  Comfy for mani/pedi, yet still presentable for afternoon at school - and when I was helping M's teacher pull out pieces of "parchment" the kids made out of the tea they were soaking in, I was glad I had on dark colors. 

Definitely a perfect spring shoe!

Field Trip Chic

Q:  How do you know it's been too long since you blogged? 
A:  Blogger asks you sign back in when you get into your Blogger Dashboard.  hahahaha.

I was doing so well and then work got INSANE because I had deadlines to meet before heading off to Disney for a week - we just got back yesterday.  (And I even had started this post a week before we left and never finished it) 

A couple Fridays ago, I went on a field trip with M's class to the Montgomery County Agricultural History Farm.  This is a field trip that could have been very ugly depending on the weather.  But the heavens smiled on us and we had a gorgeous, sunny, crisp fall day. 

What do you wear on a field trip?  Remember, you don't *have* to go into full slumpadinka mode.  But like the Boy Scouts, you do need to be prepated.

First of all, read the instructions.  (We're women, we're usually good at that.)  When the info sheet comes home and the first item says "dress for mud", you know to toss the ballet flats or flip flops in the back of the closet.  Then again...we were visitng a farm...not really sandal stuff, you know? 

So I started from the bottom up...with the good old LL Bean duck boots.  I couldn't even tell you how long I've had these...and they still work.  And then I had to giggle when a bunch of the parents were sitting around and I looked over to see another mom in duck boots. 

Jeans are the natural option.  Hey, if you want to feel good about your size, head on over to Target.  I just got these - Merona, fit #2, in straight - and I took a size 4.  How's that for the ego?  Now admittedly, I have shed some pounds over the past couple of months, but not that much.  Hey, we've all made that ooh-it's-a-smaller-size-and-it-fits purchase.  At least with jeans, you know you'll wear them - it's not a purple floral muumuu that will sit in the closet with its size 00 tag dangling dejectedly waiting to be worn. 

And given the recent weight loss, I have no idea where I'll end up, so I don't really want to spend much on replacement bottoms right now, so $24.99 jeans from Target worked out well.  It's nice to be able to wear pants that aren't falling down while you walk. 

Ok, the jeans and boots were kinda obvious. What to put on top?  Layers...always layers.  So, last JC cambridge cable turtle with a tee & cami layered underneath.  Then a puffer vest and cozy cashmere scarf.  To stay warm, zip up the vest and bundle up in the scarf.  To cool off, unzip vest, loosen scarf or stow in bag.  It was a perfect outfit for that day.

The field trip itself was a lot of fun.  And made me love M's teacher even more. Like when she, my friend Kim and I got in trouble with one of the volunteers for chatting at the back of one of the stations.  We were talking about our kids as students, and not gossiping, I swear.  Teacher was not really happy with the cranky lady. 

And then during another demonstration, a student turned her camera off and it made a very small noise.  The volunteer at the farm doing the demo pretty much freaked out - "what was that? who made that noise?"  After the students around the poor little girl with camera said "oh it's ----, she just turned off her camera," yet another crankly lady LOUDLY intoned "BOYS AND GIRLS COULD WE PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES SO WE CAN PAY ATTENTION?".  Yes, she was that nuts.  These kids aren't allowed to have cell phones, duh.  So I really fell in love with M's teacher when she turned to me and whispered "Ok, I'll give you my cell phone number and then you can call me right now."  Love that!

Wardrobe Challenge, Day #4 - plus J Crew Tissue Boyfriend Vneck Tee

Whew, crazy day. The rain held off just long enough to walk Lucy to and from the bus stop. (Both times today - Yay! we are finally walking!!) But then it was just a deluge. Ugh. So here is the outfit for the day. First of all, this is my cute green corduroy jacket that my sister got me for my birthday a few years ago, from the Gap. I love the color it adds to any outfit! It's a little boxy, but hello, it is wide-wale corduroy and I like to delude myself into thinking that the punch of color distracts from it making my upper half look like a cube. Looks especially good with a fun scarf, but it wasn't quite that chilly this morning. Of course, right after the bus stop, I spent the rest of the day using my good old LLBean Rugged Ridge parka-so I was warm, dry, and toasty!

Also pictured here is my underlayer - the J Crew Tissue Boyfriend Vneck Tee (#11657, $29.50 online, but believe on special at B&M) in shell. I believe I have waxed poetic about them before (basically awesome, I say!). Love them! So unbelievably soft! And just, you know, soft. Did I mention how soft it is? So this is the IRL pic. If I were wearing this on its own, I would definitely layer a cami underneath - you can totally see the top of my jeans and the outline of my supposedly nude, invisible bra. Maybe if I were wearing khaki pants and a better bra, I wouldn't need to. The gray and navy are totally fine - do not need the under layer. As I shared before, the white one was way sheer when I looked at it in store. Don't forget how soft it is! (Ok, I'll stop now - but yes, I am very tactile. Don't get me started on cashmere again.)

So what did I put in between? (Sorry, had to do it in this order so I didn't feel like I was undressing as I went along the post.) The J Crew Cotton Vneck Sweater (#11022, orig $64, curr $49.50 online - believe I got it at B&M for $29.99 plus 30% off) in navy. This is actually a replacement for me. I had a very similar sweater from BR that was just done and ready to retire. Trust me, it owed me nothing. So when I saw this one, I was thrilled because it had the same exact cut (and longer length). So so so happy with this sweater. I think I actually would have paid full price for this sweater - that's how much I wore the old one. So I was particularly happy to get it on sale. With white jeans, it's the perfect spring outfit. Not so sure I'll be wearing my white jeans for a while with Lucy...

And once again, Chicos jeans, and the LL Bean canvas skimmers from yesterday in navy with white polka dots (Summer 08). They did add a little *spring* to my step. (Ohhh, ouch, groan, pardon the pun.)

Of course, for puppy class tonight, sweater and skimmers went bye bye and were replaced with a sweatshirt and my Crocs ballet flats. Much more practical for that excursion!

Just to share, here's a picture of the world's laziest dog. She woke up from a nap, walked a few steps to the water bowl, and then laid down to drink. Must be nice...

Wardrobe Challenge, Day #3

Big Day - 1st Vet Appointment - Lucy was so well-behaved. I was so proud!! That Puppies for Dummes book has really been fantastic - so sad, but it really is helpful. We are really working on the not jumping up.

With the vet visit, today's ensemble needed to be totally washable. And it was supposed to actually get to spring weather. Time to bring back out the J Crew Tissue, adding my tank and Chicos jeans... plus some cute canvas flats from LL Bean, and some pearls. Gotta have a little sparkle, huh? Looking at the pics I realize that I really probably did buy this hoodie a size larger than I needed. (this was the slimmest look of the hoodie in the pics) Oh yeah, and the camera totally cut off my head because it was one of those days and I took the pics later than usual and we were downstairs and I don't have a good pic spot downstairs yet.

I have been wearing a lot of short necklaces this week because they seem like the smartest choice. I can't wait to go back to longer and layered necklaces and/or bracelets - but right now with a 12-week-old puppy, I feel like that is just asking her to chew on me, you know. We are going to a happy hour on Friday and a dinner party on Saturday sans chien, so I am definitely jeweling up for those.

And what a gorgeous day it was! Back to colder temps tomorrow.