There’s a bit of background to these photos. As I was sitting there, posing and smiling, a yucky feeling came over me. Not because I was posing for a photo and not even because I was fake laughing-though maybe that should bring on a little bit of shame-no, it was because this wasn’t realistic  

When my son turned about eight months old and I was feeling trapped from his lack of sleep during the night, extremely labored sleep during the day and restricting nursing schedules, O implemented “Mommy Mondays.” He decided he wouldn’t work at all on Monday and from the time Oshiolema woke up to the time he would normally come home from work, I was a free woman. I’ve never had the most luck with pumping so I still had to nurse throughout the day but unless it was feeding time, I could be here there and everywhere. Unless we’re traveling, we’ve done it every Monday since and it’s the biggest blessing to my week. 

While some Monday’s end up being a day to catch up on lots of mom-work, most of the time I take the opportunity to get a little more dressed up than I do for every day life and get out of the house.

While I do put on an actual outfit just about every day, I just wouldn’t wear this exact outfit to grab coffee. Meeting a friend for lunch? Sure. Going on a date with O? Absolutely. But by myself, grabbing coffee? Probably not. 

So for the sake of being real and true to myself and avoiding that yucky feeling, I’ve decided to make sure I don’t post photos of outfits I wouldn’t wear just as they’re photographed. If I wouldn’t wear an outfit to play with the kids,  I won’t photograph it playing with the kids. If I wouldn’t wear a certain dress to casual weekday lunch, I won’t post it at casual weekday lunch.

Dress (old) nearly identical: here. Black cuff: Hermes. Bracelet: David Yurman.  (budget friendly here.) Bag: Fendi  Slides: Franco Sarto

With ALL that being said, I love the idea of wearing a fancier dress with sneakers or slides for daytime. I’m often overdressed, but there are a couple things that make this look casual. First, the dress is shapeless and drop-waisted. A black structured body-con dress can be pretty hard to transition to daytime, but the shape of this one make it just as put together and sleep while still not screaming “look at me!” Second, the slides help. Secretly, I wear them because they’re crazy comfortable and I’m trying to say goodbye to the Birkenstocks til’ spring, but thankfully they’re so on trend right now that I can get away with them multiple times a week.

I challenge you to dress a little fancier one day this week and see if it doesn’t make you feel all sorts of wonderful! If you haven’t pulled the trigger on a pair of mules yet, I’ve linked some of my favorites from Nordstrom at fantastic price points to make your fall and winter whole lot more comfortable.

all photography in this post: paula b photography

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