Confessions of a MatchiN'ista: January 2016

I'm back with my 8th style confession today! In case you missed it, I'm sharing my top 15 style confessions. Here's a re-cap of 1-7:

In case you didn't know it, I. LOVE. scarves! But, I've discovered a new love in matching my scarves with cute hats!!

Style confession #8: Hats make GREAT matchiN'spiration pieces!

If you live in the northeast, it's time to start breaking out the cold weather gear because we're finally getting SNOW (and I couldn't be more excited)! Woo hoo! Winter is one of my favorite seasons because I LOVE all things cozy. Especially a cute scarf and matching mittens! (You know I love a good scarf! MatchiN'ista confession: if one scarf is good, two is better, and three or more is fabulous!!) Lately I've discovered a new found love for hats to match my scarves and mittens because they make GREAT matchiN'spiration pieces! What's a matchiN'spiration piece you ask? Anything that inspires you to create a ~~matchy-matchy~~ color coordinated outfit from head to toe (nothing is too matchy-matchy for this matchiN'ista)! There are so many cute hat options in stores right now that are just too good to pass up! Like this one!

Not to mention, the sales on winter accessories after Christmas are amazing! I've never been much of a hat person, but I'm ~~obsessed~~ in love with the bright red color and the "snow" logo of the hat pictured above, so you know what that means?!? ANYTHING I'm in love with finds a spot in my closet! MatchiN'ista philosophy: If you are ~~obsessed~~ in love with something, ~~let it go~~ buy it in multiples! Lucky for us, there are other choices for this hat that are adorable!!

And just for fun, I thought I would share one of my favorite hat and scarf combinations from last year.

I had so much fun wearing this duo and received so many compliments on it. Both the scarf and the hat came from Old Navy last year. If you're on the look-out for pink accessories and love fair isle like I do, check out this hat and matching scarf in heather grey.

Have I convinced you to buy a cute hat and matching scarf yet?!? Let me try again..I said that I'm not much of a hat person, which some of you might agree with. I figure if I'm going to take time to style my hair, then why would I cover it up with a hat?!? However, if you live in the northeast like me, hats are a must!

Basically, there's two options:

1. Get hat head from a smile-worthy, absolutely adorable hat, that keeps you warm and cozy.

OR...

2. Skip the hat because "you're not a hat person" and have the northeast wind blown look from the cold, AND freeze when you walk outside.

SEE?!? You know what I'm talking about!

Besides, what's more fun than color coordinating a hat and scarf to your winter coat?!? If you're like me and you own quite the selection of coats (hey, it's all about having options) then you've got a matchiN'ista problem! My suggestion: pick your top three coats (or four or five, because a MatchiN'ista has to have choices. Lots. Of. Choices.), and find coordinating winter accessories!

Like I said before, the deals on hats, scarves and gloves are just too good to pass up! So, if you're not a hat person, but you want to be warm, then NOW is the time to find at least one or two cuties to add to your collection!

Check out a few of my favorites below!

J. Crew Factory geometric scarf here//J.Crew Factory beanie here//Gap "SNOW" hat here//

J. Crew pink beanie here//J. Crew navy plaid scarf here//J. Crew plaid scarf here

Happy matching!

Marcie

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve, one that was full of laughter and fun!!

Ok, so I know I said I was going to return to blogging in my 31+ week hiatus confession post, but life got in the way! Sooo much has changed for our little family over the past year and since I didn't keep you all updated while things were happening, here's a little recap...

This time last year we were ringing in the New Year as a family of 4 (including our fur babies Wesley and Porsche)...or so we thought! On January 6th we found out we were going to be a family of 5! We couldn't contain our excitement, so we shared the good news with our immediate family right away!

We baked heart shaped sugar cookies and attached little notes to each of them signed, "love Baby Brown." It was so much fun to see everyone's reaction when they read their note. For family and friends who were out of town, we shared the picture above of us and the prego jar (thank you Pinterest!).

March came and went without a hitch. I already had quite the baby bump at that time and people wondered if I was pregnant with twins! Oops, I guess I indulged a little too much! Thankfully I was still able to wear my 'regular' clothes at this point, as long as I had a rubber band nearby to hold up the top button of my jeans. ;-) Eventually one of my friends told me about the BeMaternity Beband, which I highly recommend if you are expecting!

April showers brought May flowers and a much needed babymoon to Tennessee! We hopped in the car and drove the 12+ hours to Paris, Tennessee to spend time with my aunt and uncle. It was a long car ride, but totally worth it! We had so much fun that I forgot to take pictues! :-( I can tell you that if I had taken pictures, they would have been of me in my maternity leggings and long tunic tops because that's pretty much what I lived in!

And my baby bump grew...

AND grew...

(Wesley thoroughly enjoyed the 'comfy pillow')

AND grew some more...

On a sidenote, I must say that I received the BEST maternity clothes from Stitchfix! If you've never heard of them, be sure to check out their website. The maternity leggings they sent me were incredibly comfortable! I also found a few good staple pieces from Target, and I bought Seven for all Mankind maternity denim which was fabulous! A little pricey, but totally worth it. Every soon-to-be mama needs a feel-good pair of jeans :-)

The end of May was filled with excitement as we celebrated the upcoming arrival of Baby Brown at my shower. The theme was hot air balloons, which was perfect for our gender neutral celebration! My sisters', aunt, cousin, mom, mother-in-law and family friend did such an amazing job putting the decorations together!

June marked the end of another school year and my friends at work threw me a shower filled with delicious treats and heartfelt well wishes!

After weeks of trying to pick out the colors we wanted to use in the nursery, we decided to just keep things VERY simple and add pops of color after the baby was born. We chose the sheepish bedding from The Land of Nod which was perfect for the color scheme we went with! (sidenote: I have yet to add all of the finishing touches to the nursery, but I will definitely share pics when it's done)

(we were having the cushion to the chair re-upholstered to a linen oatmeal color at the time this pic was taken, which is why there's no cushion on the chair)

Most of July was spent trying to keep cool. I taught summer school in a building without air conditioning, which I will think twice about doing again at 31+ weeks pregnant! I adored the kids I worked with and the adults were great, but it was H. O. T., HOT!

I turned into a frumpiN'ista towards the end of my pregnancy because my belly was so big and comfy clothes were a must! In fact, I'm pretty sure this outfit was on an every-other-day rotation. Seriously!

August arrived and hubby and I were ~~excited~~ in panic mode as we waited for the arrival of our little one. Finally, on August 18th, 11 days early, we welcomed Mason Charles Brown into the world!

At 6 weeks we had Mason's newborn photos taken and WOW, what a long and exhausting day! It took about 4 hours and the poor little peanut cried through almost the entire thing! You can barely tell from the photos, though.

My husband accepted a new position the same week Mason was born, so let's just say things were a little busy for us at the end of August!

I have to be honest, September flew by and is a blur. I'm pretty sure I averaged 0 hours of sleep at night and tried to cram in a few hours of shut eye here and there, during the day. Thank goodness my mom stayed with us for almost the entire month of September because I'm not sure if we could have made it through those sleepless nights without her! I pretty much lived in my maternity leggings and nursing nightgowns! And, I didn't even care if they matched! Heck, I was thankful for each day that my underwear was on the right way! Mommin' isn't easy! :-)

It was all worth it, though!

Mason dressed up as a little cow for his first Halloween and of course we had to go trick or treating! We visited both GG's (great grandmas), as well as aunts and great aunts and uncles. We also carved pumpkins, read The Five Little Pumpkins, and made salt dough handprint and footprint pumpkins.

Mason celebrated his first Thanksgiving in November and he definitely knew how to ~~ham~~ turkey it up for our family!

We had beautiful weather, so we helped daddy hang up the wreaths and Christmas lights!

December was filled with Mason's first Christmas photos, shopping, baking with Grandma, and more shopping!

Of course we had to take him to visit Santa and his reindeer!

Well, that's it for 2015! Thanks for sticking with me for this recap, I know it was a long one! Stay tuned for more matchiN'ista confessions and snippets of our lives as new parents!

Happy matching,

Marcie

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Hats make GREAT matchiN'spiration pieces! {style confession #8}

Snippets from 2015