Wearing a kind of tough love look and feeling a little of the tough love women have for themselves. Every day dress wrapped the first of the Fall 2013 Trunk Shows today and has helped women with their bodies for as long as I can remember. Started as a fitness instructor, crazy aerobics dance class, remember those, thirty some years ago. Have always craved a fitness fix, as I’ve said here before helps the mind and the body. Have always loved clothing too, started dressing women at the local mall while still in high school along with the fitness thing.

Here we are, at forty-eight, still dressing women and still moving the body. Have met with over two dozen women the past ten days and as women we are so darn tough on ourselves. Would love to help us all shake a little of that tough love feeling off. Sure, strive for excellence, stay in the game, set goals, but also let’s all enjoy where we’re at. Ten pounds up, ten pounds down, let’s love us now. Anytime I get anywhere near a complaint husband reminds me that it’s over when it’s over so love some of the tough stuff now.

Every day dress moves through a busy day in all black and ponte and leather. Tough love look indeed. Love that it’s easy, love that it’s black. Tough is not so tough. 🙂

Couple of fashion notes: leather vest purchased probably five years ago, Harley pant new this season. Actually bought two, one size up, one size down. That tough love thing you know. With a shorter length on top, want a little extra room. When wearing something longer and looser, kind of like wearing the tighter ones. Inside tip: actually spot clean the leather vest with baby wipes. Yes, every day dress keeps a tub of baby wipes on hand to quickly and gently clean leather shoes and leather garments.

Four week recruiting blitz starts tomorrow, Wednesday. Who do you know that loves clothes, likes to move and be busy, and help women feel confident with what they wear? For the right woman, it pretty much doesn’t get better than that. Every day dress. We believe all women can have and wear beautiful clothing. Ten pounds up or down. Let’s not even get going with ten years up or down…

If I had to choose one single outfit to wear each and every weekend, it would no doubt be blue jeans white shirt. Unimaginative, yet classic and great. Would choose too to cook simple food, the best in arm’s reach, and to set the table for family and friends with what’s at hand. Add some time to read, walk, sleep in past nine, heaven on earth.

Grounded the outdoor table for Saturday night’s dinner with a blue-green quilt. Saw mums at the farmers market and while we didn’t make the purchase, table setting is turning to the next season. Small coffee mugs with fresh-cut flowers, added basil and rosemary from the garden, love mixing fresh herbs on the dinner table, and Saturday night slipped into a lovely Sunday. Fresh coffee, sleep in a little, cut back the day lilies and the overgrown apple trees, depend on what’s only in the closet, blue jeans and white shirt, weekend is very good.

Actually read two books, one fiction, one not. Like to spread it out. The Good House, Rework. Both great, highly recommend.

Hoping you all had good thoughts on the weekend. Every day dress.

 

Cuff bracelets in today’s and last post were purchased while traveling and are all about seeking balance.

Here goes: favorite silver cuff was purchased at Albright-Knox Art Gallery gift shop and love wearing it as one statement piece. Always kind of wish I had two of them. Kind of really like the idea of symmetry. While traveling in AZ for work and pleasure spotted this great silver jewelry in an art gallery in Sedona. Immediately went for the widest cuff I could. Asked the gallery clerk if she had another, think she thought that a little strange, not sure, and bought both. Told her I generally dressed in easy simple clothes and that I liked to accessorize usually with a single statement piece, in this case I wanted two, an equality, a balance.

Youngest daughter, almost thirteen, think they look a bit like handcuffs. Oldest daughter, twenty-three, thinks they are great in tandem and twenty year old daughter borrows one at a time. Fourteen year old, seemingly not at all interested. All in balance.

About the Friday work outfit? Once we hit mid-August can’t really do the summer look anymore. Pulled on this season’s Harley pants, loving the rocker chic mood, last year’s printed silk blouse, and shoe boots purchased last fall in some tiny town in Tuscany. Liquid silver cuffs, a pair, finished off the look. Felt right, could move through a full day of work, a drive out to the country, and through Friday night dinner with the family. Thinking we’re all a little about balance and when your clothes can move with you through your entire day, it’s a very good thing.

Every day dress.

Liquid Metal Bracelets | Pandora | Liquid Metal Jewelry

 

As Summer 2013 starts to slowly slide away, it’s feeling like it’s time for a change. Happens every year, summer clothes no longer seem fresh. Looking for something new and working on that, Fall 2013 Trunk Show happening all this week.

In the meantime, there’s always essentials: fresh-cut flowers, white denim jeans, black basic t-shirt, sneakers and dark nail color. Can always count on those to get through the day with a little style. Leather and wool, not quite happening yet but can’t wait. New York Times reported today that leather jackets were seen on the street, yippee, had mine on last week Thursday.

So if you too are feeling like it might be time for a change, enjoy all these summer days and nights, they slip away quickly, default to your closet essentials, have a look around the Fall 2013 fashion landscape, and, every day dress.

Black Tee | Club Monaco

White Jeans | JCrew

Sneakers | Chanel

 

 

Every day dress chooses to simply wear the runway for Friday night dinner out with two women friends. Super easy and easy is good.

When the skirt shines no other accessories are needed. Small watch, modern clutch, high heels, all set.

Currently working Fall 2013 runway looks. If you too would like to simply wear the runway and make your fashion life easier, email me here, rebecca@everydaydress.com. Happy to help. Easy is good.

Skirt, Sweater, Clutch | Worth New York

Shoes | Christian Louboutin at Neiman Marcus

For you foodies out there and by request here are the details for Halibut in Pea Sauce. Super easy, make sure to have good fresh bread on hand, sauce is delicious.

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

1 teaspoon shallots, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups half and half

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas

salt and pepper to taste

4-6 fresh halibut fillets

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For the sauce, saute garlic and shallots in small sauce-pan for a few minutes in half the oil, add half and half and let it come to a simmer; cook for about two minutes. Puree in blender and set aside.

Pour the olive oil in a frying pan and bring to fairly high heat. Place the halibut in the pan and sear for a few minutes on each side to create some brown crunchy crust, without burning. (I seared only the top of the fish, the fish I purchased had skin on and personally I really don’t like seared skin).

Transfer the fillets to an oven pan, pour the hot pea sauce over the fish, place in oven. Bake for 10 minutes. I poured the sauce around the fish, baked, and then when plating garnished the baked fish with the sauce on top). Plates are a little messy, this is family and life is often messy. 🙂

Serves 4-6.

Recipe from Finger Lakes Feast | 110 Delicious Recipes from New York’s Hotspot for Wholesome Local Foods | Kate Harvey and Karl Zinsmeister | photos by Noah Zinsmeister

Totally enjoy cooking from this book and family is happy, thank you Kate, Karl, and Noah.

PS Three Sisters Soup is even better the second and third day.

Wishing everyone a great Friday and wonderful weekend. Every day dress.

 

When you live good and hard you learn and know deep down in that life is often hard and messy. Hard and messy in that we all are pretty much in it together and that to bring style and grace to the every day, messy as it may be, is a very good thing.

Today, every day dress bakes, cooks and sets the table from a deep closet: when you have good things on hand it’s easy to show the love. Stopped at the farm stand and picked up all that was in season, payed cash, how about that, and then decided what to cook. Zucchini and Cannellini, fourteen your old daughter proclaimed after dinner that she was obsessed with it. Sour cream banana bread, Three-Sisters Soup and Halibut in Pea Sauce for a Tuesday night send-off, husband and second son are going fishing, second daughter is headed to Boston MA, all tomorrow, and we showed the love further by setting the table with linen, candles, and fresh flowers.

Yes, there are bumps in the road, for sure. Let’s all use the good stuff a little more often and work to bring style and grace to the every day. Here’s to having a deep closet. Makes things easier.

xoxo

PS Had many great photos, kind of thinking that cyberspace has  a time limit max for photo uploading, or maybe it’s just time to move towards the next thing. Grocery store flowers, simply cut them off at elbow height so we could all see each other across the table, and china coffee cups for soup bowls. Just haven’t had time to restock the cupboard with proper bowls, sometimes you have to make do. Living hard seems to make those every day cereal/soup bowls kind of disappear.

Having four daughter’s that all love clothing, wonder where they got that from, every day dress shows here one skirt, three ways.   Summer event dressing is easy when you have a couple of beautiful new pieces and you’re not afraid to wear them time and again. Trying to teach my girls that as well, that’s taking time. Clothing confidence can be developed. It’s a good thing we all wear pretty much the same size, lots of sharing going on.

This skirt packs well and begs for flat shoes. I suppose you could do a heel, would feel way too precious for me though. All of these looks have been posted  before but thought that bringing them all together might inspire: skirt went kind of dressed up with white blouse and black and silver turquoise belt, dressed down with tank, denim shirt, brown belt, suede boots. East coast lakefront dinner look shows the skirt with the matching blouse, creating a bit of a dress effect, and every day dress always loves a dress.

Love wearing clothing in all different ways and many times over. Thinking of wearing this skirt again out this week to an antique car show. Not sure with what yet, that will come. One skirt, three ways, soon four.

 

As in Moss, not the other beautiful one, the new mum.

Lifestyle post: sometimes things are too much fun, way too hard, or just one of those days. When the enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day gets a little carried away, here is what we call the kate.

Real Coca-Cola , not that diet stuff, and an Advil or two. Take anytime, two in the morning, five in the morning, seven in the morning, perhaps even twelve noon. Read somewhere sometime that that’s what super stylish Kate Moss does after a late night.

Thinking that if you are into fashion, over the age of twenty, enjoy a glass of wine or two, the kate might be a helpful remedy.

Channeling Kate Moss anyway I can, even if it’s with a Coca-Cola and an Advil after a long week of work.

Every day dress informally offers up the kate. Love that the dog doesn’t get too concerned with every day challenges.

Have a great weekend all. xoxo

 

Not quite sure where you get to help an 84-year-old woman pick out three new outfits, show a very fashionable  woman new things for Fall 2013 that travels all over the country and has a fondness for quality workmanship and fine fabrics, and assure another woman that yes she is really a size M in knitwear and not size L, all while working from home and wearing a cashmere tee, stretch linen pants, and rockstud shoes.

Yes, work is work. When you love what you do it can be best work. Every day dress, we love what we do. Helping women find clothes they look and feel great in. We even get to cook dinner. Wild halibut, coho salmon, local broccoli, local corn, local romaine, two kinds of fresh bread with of course salted real butter. Had we had more time would have totally trimmed that corn to even lengths. Traded corn trimming for a decadent hour of weeding in the garden. 🙂

Today’s outfit was great. Never felt like changing even once. Handled the entire day’s activities and then some.

Always room for more best work.

Pale Heather Grey Cashmere Modern Polo Pullover | Worth New York Spring 2013

Black Linen Sydney Pant | Worth New York Summer 2013

Valentino Rockstud Shoes | can go all day in them no kidding | Valentino

ps. Cashmere Pullover purchased from ongoing sample sale…email here if you too are interested in some great samples. rebecca@everydaydress.com.