I’m liking the polka dot tights trend right now, but as with most trends, I’m a little uncertain how I’ll feel about it in a few months so I came up with a brilliant idea to make a temporary pair!

It comes off immediately in the wash but won’t rub off on the couch or on your date’s pants. Here’s how I made them in three super easy steps…

Photos by Kate Skogen of JetKat Photography

Have you heard of chalkboard markers? They’re pens that are a little more permanent than a piece of chalk and work perfectly for something like this.

Step 1: The tip of the chalkboard marker is round,  so you just need to put the tights on and dot yourself like crazy all over (You’ll have to wash your skin underneath. After you scare your friend that you’ve come down with a rare disease of course).

Step 2: Then wait for a few minutes for the ink to dry a bit. Take off the tights and use them as much as you want, until you’re sick of them and miss your solid color tights you had before. The chalkboard paint once it dries only comes off in the wash! I wore mine 3 times I think before I washed them.

Step 3: Wash your tights and you’ll see no trace of your trendy polka dots!

For this shoot, I teamed up once again with talented photographer Ashley Thalman based out of Utah (seriously love working with her!). I also brought on brilliant stylist Emily Frame of Bijou Market, who just started an amazing kids blog called Small Fry, and hair/makeup artist Bethany Kartchner of Salon K in Provo, Utah. The fantastic models are my hip sister Katrina and her stylish man Quinn Peterson, who started a fantastic line of handmade mens ties made from vintage fabrics called QP Collections.

The hardest part about Halloween for me is the pressure you sometimes feel as an adult to dress up! In my experience, it’s almost always done last minute when you find out that party you’re invited to is mandatory dress up, and it’s even more difficult when you’re trying to coordinate with a partner. When I was in Utah a couple months ago for the leather jacket post, Ashley and I were chatting about how fun it would be to do a couples costume shoot to brainstorm ideas for you all (and ourselves!) this Halloween.

This week I’m sharing a few ideas for couples costumes so you won’t have any excuses this year to not to join in on Halloween fun. The whole idea behind these costume ideas is that you can throw together something fun last minute with stuff you probably already have in your wardrobe.  I’ll share two ideas today and two later this week.

1. First up, Bandits!

If your closet is anything like mine, you’ll have no problem outfitting the whole street in striped shirts for bandit costumes. The bandit bags can be purchased from any craft store, Emily printed a $ sign on the computer and used it as a stencil to make the bags.

Bandits clothing details:

Quinn: Allen Edmonds 5th Ave shoes/Calvin Klein suit/Asos shirt/QP Collections tie (coming soon)

PS Doesn’t Katrina make a stunning Betty?

All images by Ashley Thalman for Say Yes to Hoboken

I’m excited that we saved our best for last for our dare to wear it series…the leather jacket! Liz scored her vintage Levi leather jacket from a consignment store in San Francisco. This classic piece usually comes with an edgy reputation but when styled correctly this jacket can be anything from soft and feminine to rocker chic. Check out these outfits Liz put together and let us know, would you dare to wear a leather jacket this fall?

What do you think? Could you pull off the leather jacket this season?

Clothing:
1. Dress and oxfords thrifted
2. Skirt from Gap Outlet, sweater from J.Crew
3. Blouse and oxfords thrifted, jeans are Joes
4. Tee is consignment, sweatshirt from h&m, boots from target
5. Black jeans from Urban Outfitters, shirt from J.Crew
Leather jacket is second hand vintage Levi’s
Lipstick is Nars Heat Wave

A couple weekends ago we went for a backpacking trip in Yosemite with Henry. Every time we go backpacking I get a bunch of emails from people asking for tips on backpacking or camping with kids. We’ve backpacked with Henry quite a few times from the time he was a little baby, so I thought it might be fun to share a few tips we’ve learned along the way, and a few of our pictures from our Yosemite trip. We tend to be pretty adventurous, and you can follow along with us on our trips on instagram (@liz_stan).

1. Get out of the campgrounds. Trust me. Isn’t the point to get away from people when you camp? They’re very difficult to get a reservation if you’re in a popular area. Like, impossible. Drive just outside any national park and you’re probably in a national forest, wilderness area, multi-use area. You can do what they call ‘dispersed camping’ anywhere around there. Plus, if there’s no one around you won’t be embarrassed if your baby cries at night or if your toddler has a tantrum about the hot dog that fell on the ground! The image above was a spot we camped at on a Friday night just south of Yosemite in the Sierra National Forest during peak season. We didn’t see anyone for miles. We just drove on a couple unmarked dirt roads until we found a good spot. A spot in Yosemite valley in the summer is impossible to get and is more crowded than San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. Ugg.

2. Lower your expectations. This applies more to younger kids since the older your kids get, the more rational they seem to get. For example, on this backpacking trip we ended up hiking about 2 miles in until we found a good spot to set up camp. But, we also knew that we could camp right on the lake where the boat dropped us off if needs be. And we were totally okay with that. In fact, just about 5 minutes into the hike, 4 1/2 yr old Henry started whining and I immediately started scanning the area for flat spots to camp. Luckily, his mood improved (thanks to Jared working his dad magic), but my expectations were kind of low from the start. I remember especially when he was younger thinking, “Well, I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t puke on me and then scream all night”. Keep your expectations low and you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. When he was younger we leaned hard into the iPhone to get him to fall asleep in the tent at night. Now he just needs someone to snuggle with him and help him count the stars.

More tips and photos…

3. Butter ‘em up. Being easy going is not Henry’s strong suit, so hiking to the camp spot (which is the definition of backpacking), can sometimes be tricky depending on his mood. He’s too heavy to carry now so we really do need him to walk on his own. We talk about it on the drive there, buttering him up about his good hiking skills and how 4 yr olds generally aren’t allowed to hike by themselves but they might (with no indication of who ‘they’ might be – the family of coyotes patrolling the area?) make an exception since he’s exceptionally good at it and acts like he’s 5. Of course be prepared with lots of fun songs (ants go marching, down by the bay, i.e. whatever will make them laugh), snacks he wouldn’t get to eat at home (i.e. loads of sugar) and lots of things to point out along the way (flowers, bugs, rocks that look like poo).

4. Setting up camp is. so. fun. It’s the funnest part of camping for kids. Let them help with the tent, the sleeping bags, their belongings, getting the stove set up (Jetboil all the way. Boils water in literally 2o seconds). They’ll get so excited to see their sleeping bag, favorite stuffed animal and flashlight all laid out next to yours. And building a fire! If you’re allowed in the area you’re camping, for sure make one! Just don’t make any promises you can’t live up to (have you made a fire since middle school? it’s not always easy if you don’t have the right sticks). Kids love to watch the process, help collect sticks, and roast marshmallows or hot dogs when it’s good and ready.

5. Let them run wild. After the camp is set up, hot dogs have been consumed, sleeping bags lined up  it’s often still a ridiculously early time for bed if you’re under the age of 80. We love to pick a spot close to water since Henry could skip rocks for hours. You can do some really fun sunset exploring, treasure collecting, adventure seeking, treasure hunt finding, wilderness man hunting. Just give it an awesome name and an imaginative plot, “The bears are out of their cave! Let’s find a place to hide and a weapon to protect us!” (Yeees, fake weapons are totally allowed in the great outdoors). Plus you’re gonna feel like you’re doing your parental duty of ‘letting them run wild in nature’. Let them get dirty, pick up bugs, throw huge rocks in the water, scream ‘echo’ up the canyon 10 bazillion times. Remember that just yesterday you wouldn’t let them throw a soft pillow in the living room too close to your face so this is their chance to be a real kid!

(1, 3, 5 photos by Katrina. Rest by myself)

Great News! Levi’s® is offering a special discount code to Say Yes to Hoboken readers. Hooray! 15% off Women’s and Kids at us.levi.com with the promo code LIZSTAN at checkout.  The code expires at 11:59pm PST on March 21st. Happy shopping!

Eek! I’ve been so excited to share this with you!! Levi’s® featured me in a mini documentary promoting their Levi’s ® Curve ID system. It’s a feature about my life as a professional blogger, our family in San Francisco, and my experience trying out the Levi’s ® Curve ID system. I hope you like it. It was so much fun to be part of and such a crazy experience! A few people have said that they’ve seen the feature as an ad on HULU.  Holy Smokes!! Enjoy:

So. Let’s talk about jeans for a minute, friends.

What do you look for in a pair of jeans? Doing the feature really did make me more reflective in my jean selection process. Realizing mostly that I don’t give it nearly enough thought for something I wear everyday. I look for jeans that fit well, are flattering, comfortable, versatile, and of course affordable. Why are they so hard to find?! But, so crucial to my wardrobe that I can’t afford to go without a pair. I end up accumulating far too many pairs of jeans in the never-ending process of finding the perfect pair. Do you do that too or do you hold out for the perfect pair?

And where do I even being about the low rise trend! Curses! Luckily, it seems that things are moving away from that direction. Phew. Levi’s®, for example, has three different curves which I found really useful when finding the right match for my shape. But low rise jeans are still the majority of my wardrobe and if if I had a penny for each time I was spotted pulling up the back to avoid revealing my behind to the world…It drives me nuts. What do you look for in a pair of jeans? What challenges you you typically face finding the right pair for your body?

PS Here are the modern demi curve skinny Levi’s® jeans I was wearing in the feature

Also.. stay tuned tomorrow for a few behind the scenes photos from the Levi’s shoot!

There were a few things I didn’t like about it. Three things, specifically that I didn’t like: the length, no sleeves, the huge plunging back (which I don’t have a picture of before). So, I made some alterations:

 And now I’m kind of obsessed with it.

My friend Tracy who is an amazing seamstress and has a really good eye for this kind of thing graciously stopped over and gave me a few tips before getting starting. Although I think if she would have seen me actually making the alterations she would have been wincing in pain. I messed up on quite a few things but in the end it was a great learning experience and I love the result.
Here are a few more pictures of the process:

 This is the bottom piece that I cut off and used for the sleeves and back panel. I added hem lace to the inside of the hem before doing the blind hem by hand.

 This is the ruffle piece from the bottom that I used to make the sleeves. I undid most of the gather except for the top part on the shoulder. The hand stitching to attach it was painful but other than that, it wasn’t too tricky. At one point I thought I was losing my sight, but as it turned out, I just needed a bowl of ice cream and tv break. Seems to cure most sewing-related ailments.

 

I had to fudge the back panel a bit (well, actually a lot) because I didn’t have quite the amount of fabric I needed for the length. I had to attach two pieces together to get the right length, but in the end that seam was hidden by voluminous ruffles anyway.

 I stitched the back panel on the right side and added snaps inside the ruffle on the left so I could get in the dress. What’s the point of a pretty dress you can’t get in?

Henry wanted to show off his outfit too

I’m surprised it has taken me almost a year of being completely obsessed with bows to make this simple fabric bow belt. It’s been spinning around in my head for a while, but for some reason it just never materialized until now.

Originally I was going to make it honeysuckle (since it’s the color of 2011 or haven’t you heard), but this mustard yellow fabric was calling my name that morning and it goes with everything. I especially love it with this polka dot dress.

If you’re sickly obsessed with bows like me, I’m sharing my process to make this easy bow belt with  directions and photos over here at Momtastic.

Proof of my big bow craft obsession:
Big Bow Pillow
Bow Hair Clip
Sequin Bow Shoe Clips
Big Bow Pencil Skirt

The rest of this post is a tutorial for the tote handles:
You want something fairly sturdy. I used a really heavy weight cotton. Start by making tubes out of each of the 20” by 5” strips. Fold them over and sew around three sides, leaving one side unfinished to turn inside out. After you turn them inside out stitch on the outside of the last side (don’t worry it will be covered by a cross stitch anyway on the bag).
You want the handles to fold over on top to make it comfortable to hold. I stuck pins a couple inches in from the ends and then folded over and sewed the strip together inbetween those pins.

I then measured and pined them in place on the inside of the bag. Make sure both handles are the same height so it will be comfortable to hold.
Sew them on, crossing through the middle. Then call in your husband/friend/pet fish to join you in admiring your finished beach tote.

This is the big bow pillow I made yesterday. I started with this tutorial to make the actual bow. Although I made both the bow and the middle piece much much wider. I wanted a big fatty bow. Really, it’s just a big tube with a small tube wrapped around it. Super simple. Like a big bow tie.
But I wanted another layer coming around the back for the pillow. I made a third tube (same width) for that with unfinished edges and strung it through the back of the bow. Then I pinned it all down on the front side and sewed the pillow together like normal (I just did the easy two panel method in back instead of a zipper)

Ta dah!I have another cool pillow in the works so stay tuned…