Signs of Fall in the Smith House

Coat Crazy

I live in a state where we only really need coats for two and a half months each year. For the other nine and a half months, a light jacket, cardigan, three-quarter sleeved sweater or (most often) an air conditioning unit will suffice.

Nevertheless, when I feel the first shiver of fall, I am overjoyed to start shopping for coats. That's right, coats plural. In entirely impractical colors and over-feminized shapes. This year I'm dying for an eggplant purple coat - and since it hit fifty degrees for about an hour last night, I feel totally justified in my quest.

If I were granted an entire wardrobe of coats, I think it'd include the following:

For football games and strolling through Fall for Greenville next month. (Target)

See above. Go Tigers! (Boden)

A trench for the mid-fall chill...this is the Bow Shoulder version by Juicy.

A dijon-colored corduroy jacket for chilly cubicles and boring jeans and white shirt days. (Gap)

Add in black flats and a scarf, then move to England to reside inside Boden's catalogs forever. They're so happy there!

To be clear, this gorgeous bow-neck coat is red - not garnet. (Red Valentino)

You know I love the purple, if not the price. (Sonia Rykiel)

Imagine this mustard yellow on someone wearing more clothes than this model (wow, cleave) but sporting less of a jaundiced hue than, say, myself. Love the tie belt. (VS. Really!)

An evergreen bargain from Old Navy.

A classic red Ralph Lauren peacoat

Boden offers this in red and purple, too, but I'm loving the contrast of brass buttons on black.

I love a chocolate brown coat, especially this belted one with fuller sleeves. (Mackage)

I know, I know - you're tired of purple already. Last one, I promise. (Boden)

A pretty camel coat with bell sleeves - and a smaller-than-your-mortgage-payment (ahem, Saks) price.
Steal! (Old Navy)

If Old Navy's camel coat is too basic for you, skip the scarf and go with Milly's Darling coat. (Saks, via PIPM)

J. Crew rarely goes wrong with ruffles.


I love this jacket for holiday parties and dull work days alike. (Boden. Yes, again.)

Not Quite an Honorable Mention:

Does anyone really need a silk faille trench coat, Oscar de la Renta? Not to question your judgment, but I envision a trench coat being worn on a cloudy (if not rainy) day. Perhaps I'd just sport your silk faille version indoors??

On Bed Rest and Blessings...

Last Thursday morning we found out that I'd be headed out of work and into the world of maternity leave a little sooner than anticipated...like, that afternoon. Surprise!

The good news is that everything's fine - Mac is doing wonderfully and we're over the 37 week mark, considered full term. Such a blessing! I can't express our gratitude to have reached this milestone before my blood pressure started giving the doctors pause.

So now I'm home and resting, checking in with the doctor twice a week and waiting for sweet Mac to make his debut. We just can't wait to meet him!

This week I'll have lots of pictures for you as the nursery shapes up, adorable Blue proves himself a more loyal and constant companion than ever (he's loving my bed rest!) and Bradley continues being the best (working) house-husband I know.

We're so fortunate to have the support of our friends and family - and to have avoided the kind of bed rest where parents pray for weeks on end that their baby stays safe and sound until he's full term.

Mac is growing beautifully, giving the doctors every reason to believe he's in great shape, seemingly oblivious to the blood pressure blips his mom is having.

Me? I'm taking it day by day. As a girl who loves nothing more than napping or lying around, I find the concept of bed rest a little odd - somehow doing nothing loses all its charm once it's a direct order.

So I'll keep you posted - expect to hear a lot more from me in the near future...I'll certainly have the free time! (And please try to keep me from buying a piece from every Fall 2009 collection known to man as I keep myself entertained through these (slow) days.)

Just wanted you to know we're well and hanging in there! Can't wait to have more news, but 'til then you'll have to settle for my musings on fall fashion, 2010 vacations and the (almost-here) smell of Christmas. (We're under the 3 month mark, people! Hooray!)

It finally feels like fall, the time of year B and I have been waiting for since two pink lines first appeared months ago...

I may be on bed rest but I'm counting my blessings. Hope you're doing the same! (The latter, that is.)

xoxo,
A.

Eating my words

My friend Kristen recently confessed a newfound love for one Miley Cyrus.

I, of course, disagreed. She represents a lot of things that I'm very anti- (let's throw grammar out the window here) and I just find her a little, I don't know, grating.

So why am I humming this song all the time? I rarely ever listen to the radio, and sweet li'l Miles is certainly not on the iPod I do listen to, so why is my brain punishing me this way?

And yet it's so catchy...try not to sing along!

Happy Sunday!

Today B and I are off to his hometown for a family baby shower. I'm excited to see my parents and his family! I have some pics to share when we get back, just wanted to say hello....

And if you have a minute, go admire Emery, the gorgeous daughter of our friends Steph and Neil. Steph was eight weeks ahead of me in pregnancy, but little E came two weeks early so she's already been here for five weeks or so... Amazing to think I'm next. I only hope Mac is half as cute as their little bundle.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend and enjoying football season...I can't really talk about that quite yet, as Thursday night's loss is too fresh. All in due time, my friends.

A few quick notes for you, from other folks' blogs:

1. Open toed boots = ew.

2. Miley Cyrus....um, still not a huge fan. But I do love Kristen!

3. This summer pearl couscous salad looks unbelievable. Anyone care to make it for me while I'm gone?

Mandy Moore to let down her hair....

I'm well beyond the target demographic for Disney films, but I was still super excited to see a Rapunzel preview in the theater earlier this month. I've always wondered why they have covered every other possible princess, real and imagined, but haven't brought Rapunzel to the big screen.

With that in mind, I am intrigued to see that Mandy Moore has been chosen to voice Rapunzel in the film due out Christmas 2010. I had heard (literally, in the preview) that Kristen Chenoweth, she of Wicked and West Wing fame, would be singing from the castle tower as the imprisoned princess. Maybe there's been a change in plans, though?

So who's busy on December 26, 2010? Y'all want to join me?

9/9/09....a minute late

Okay, 24 hours late.

I caught all the hubbub yesterday about the 9/9/09 date and was just as struck by it as I was on 7/7/07, then in a pre-wedding frenzy, and 8/8/08 - that is to say that I barely noticed at all.

UNTIL someone asked on Twitter if we remembered 9/9/99. Ten years ago exactly. I have a terrible memory, but I was overcome with very specific memories of that day. Why, you ask? A very shallow reason -the MTV VMAs.



I remember where I watched them, with whom, the commercials (new Ford Focus was introduced and no one liked it!), the less-than-sexy Kid Rock and Eminem, Li'l Kim's lavender (ahem, half naked) outfit, Britney's first VMA performance (oh, young and innocent Brit), N Sync's dancing...the list goes on. It was the heyday of TRL, Carson Daly, Ricky Martin, teen pop and a totally different time in my life.

So I'm officially old. I remember, really remember, things from a DECADE AGO!! Eep!

If this is how quickly ten years can go by, I'm going to be 50 before I know it. Someone please remind me to enjoy my twenties while I can, because I keep forgetting I'm not 94 already...

His eye is on Nicole Richie's son....

I've had a hymn stuck in my head ever since I heard yesterday that Joel Madden and Nicole Richie named their newborn son Sparrow. SPARROW. As in Captain Jack. As in this little guy:


Sparrow James Midnight Madden and big sister Harlow will probably fit in perfectly on the LA playground scene, but anywhere else and a name like Sparrow (I keep forgetting to capitalize it, silly nouns-as-names!) would be greeted with utter confusion.

I suppose they could have named him Hawk, which would have lent a bit more masculinity to the tiny tot - but would have placed great pressure on him to grow up big and beefy. Can you really picture a gangly teenage chess player named Hawk?

All that matters, I know, is the kind of man Sparrow grows up to be - and I hope his parents raise him to be a wonderful one.

But was James such a terrible option??

Planting hope and waiting for good

Angie Smith tweeted a link to this blog entry earlier today and it took me a few reads before it finally sunk in. I had to share the most meaningful passage for me...

I'm struck by how many people in my life seem to be in a moment (or a season) of waiting right now. Waiting for an answer, a baby, a pregnancy, a job offer, a clean bill of health, a home to sell, some time away or just plain good news.

I hope the words below encourage you as they did me! My friend Maria just blogged about a similar subject, the value of waiting on God's timing instead of settling because you're focused on your own timeline.

I know that each of these messages are reaching me at the same time for a very clear purpose...

"We bury our swollen prayers in Him who's raised from the tomb. We lay our hope, full and tender, into the depths of Him and wait in hope for God to resurrect something good. Good always necessitates long waiting.

Every tulip only blossoms after cold months of winter wait. Every human ever unfurled into existence through nine long months of the womb waiting. And the only kingdom that will last for eternity still waits, this millennia-long, unwavering-hope for return of its King.

Instead of chafing, we accept that waiting is a strand in the DNA of the Body of Christ. That this waiting on God is the very real work of the people of God."

It's September?!

I woke up yesterday and apparently everyone got the memo that it's fall - cooler temperatures, scarves and ballet flats, the works. Football season is here and I'm excited to experience my favorite season!

But you know what this means....as of yesterday I'm having a baby next month. Holy cow, y'all!