Washable Workwear Wednesday: Faux Leather Paperbag Pencil Skirt
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Faux leather has come a long way — it’s buttery soft, lightweight, and you might mistake it for the real thing. Leather and its faux counterpart have always been popular for fall and winter — now, there are some lovely options for spring, too!
Ann Taylor’s Faux Leather Paperbag Pencil Skirt is a perfect example of the leather-for-spring look — it’s a lovely light taupe-gray (I’d love to see this in additional colors for fall), has a comfy elastic waist, and hits below the knee. And, unlike its non-faux counterpart, it’s machine washable!
I’d pair it with a textured, chunky sweater for now, and a flowy blouse or tee for later.
The skirt is $98 and available in XXS–XL.
Another option is Eloquii’s Faux Leather Snap Front Skirt (similar paperbag elasticized waist and length, but with snaps, a tie belt, and a more golden hue) for $79.95 in most sizes 14–28. Right now you can get 40% off with code YESSS, which brings the price down to $47.97.
Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
Tips for resetting when everything seems to be going wrong? I feel like all the balls I’ve been juggling are pelting me in the face, and I can’t seem to reset. I just want to curl up in bed and have a good cry, but I can’t allow myself that luxury right now.
After a year+ of searching for a new house, my husband and I are thinking of building instead. We have two kids, age three and under, and want to have at least one more. Has anyone been through this process and have any suggestions on a house that works well with young kids? Things you wish you had in your own house? Our current house was built in the 70’s, and there are so many things I’d like changed that it’s difficult to know where to start!
Dealing with what I suspect is our first cold with the baby. Clear runny nose, coughing, up crying a couple times last night which is unusual for him. No fever, but we are keeping him home from daycare today just in case.
Any tips on making the next few days more bearable while he gets through it? He’s almost 7 months.
My dream house would include:
– on a largely flat lot but backing onto trees / a view of some kind
– a big mud room located where you enter the house (so that might be adjacent to the front door for some, back door, garage etc.) with a separate coat closet large enough to store a vacuum / most commonly used cleaning stuff
– an oversized double garage (space for 2 cars and all the big outdoor kid toys)
– a big eat in kitchen with a separate pantry with a view to the back yard
– a playroom (doesn’t have to be particularly big) on the main floor that I could see from the kitchen but still had some type of door for noise/mess containment (sliding panel doors perhaps)
– a big open play space in the basement for running/jumping/ throwing balls for days its too cold/wet/icy/hot to go outside
MomHive, I’m wondering if any of you are parents to extremely gifted kids and can provide pointers or resources. We had to test DD (5) for kindergarten applications for independent schools (DC area). She’s always been a bit ahead of her peers and is reading ahead of her age, so I expected her to do well. The results blew us away — she tested at Einstein-level genius. The tester said she’d only seen a few kids in a decade of testing hit that level.
This is not a humblebrag, and it’s not something I can easily talk to my friends about. But I am genuinely struggling with the news. On one hand – it’s a test for 5-year-olds, how much can it matter? On the other hand, if DD has some innate talent, I am not sure how best to develop and nurture it, and to keep her from getting bored. Appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.
My daughter will be 3 in April. She has an insane memory. We read a book about airplanes twice and then she can name/identify all the basic parts (wings, nose, fuselage, flight recorder, etc.), for example. She watches the Airplanes movie 3 times and then she can sing all the lyrics to one of the random songs in the middle. I realize those are both airplane-related examples, but it’s the same with things about the aquarium/fish, etc. Can count to 20, knows all and can identify most letters. I’m not at all saying she’s any kind of savant at all but I recognize something in her and would like to make sure we’re giving her what she needs in return. She’s fiercely independent and strong-willed, so structure is our friend. Her nanny is fantastic and, at nanny’s own doing (she’s in grad school for ECE and we are so lucky to have her…) they’re working on sight words during the “school” part of their day. DD is totally in to it and loving it.
Anything else we can be doing, or apps/books? I’m 10000% not trying to push her in to too much learning early – very sensitive to that, but she’s showing an interest and ability that we’d like to use to our advantage as we try to keep her engaged and structured through these trying 2-3 year old days while hunkered down indoors (thanks, New England winter…). We have the Homer app. Try to limit that on weekends to just 15 minute increments x 2/day. Anything else we should try? Thanks!
Recommendations for a table and chair set for a young toddler (under 2?) She attends a Montessori daycare and her teacher reported that she loves doing “table work” so grandma has offered to buy her a table and chair. I have googled … and there are SO MANY options. Any recommendations for something safe, durable, and easy to clean? Bonus if it’s wood or white.
In silly kid things:
My son’s preschool teacher is apparently teaching the kids lovely vocabulary words. Last night the kiddos were playing a “think of words that start with A” game after dinner and after they both started with apple, my 4 year old piped up with “ABSENTMINDED! Absentminded means that you forget things a lot.”
He was also very excited that today is pj day and since he and one of his friends have the same dragon jammies, the teacher surely won’t be able to tell the two of them apart!
We just redid our basement which is dual laundry/pantry/over-sized platters, appliance storage as we have limited storage in our kitchen. My dreams of hanging an Elfa system came crashing down yesterday. The studs in the basement aren’t strong enough to guaranty it would support the system once hung and loaded with all the stuff. We have concrete walls in this particular area of the basement (behind the finished wall) and we’d like to avoid drilling in to the concrete as that requires opening up the walls again. Wah.
So, I’m on the hunt for free standing shelving systems. I don’t want it to be just the wire racks you see at home depot – that’s too garage-y for me. I also want to have flexible shelf spacing/add shelves if I’d like for things that aren’t tall. Eyeing BROR or IVAR from Ikea. Anyone have those, or any other recommendations? TIA!
Friends had a baby last week who had to have emergency heart surgery. They’re still in the hospital with the baby, several states away from me. What should I send them to let them know I’m thinking of them but trying not to be intrusive when they need privacy? Just wait until they’re home from the hospital? So far I’ve just sent a few “thinking of you, don’t feel the need to respond” texts.
If folks are willing can you share your experiences with therapy? I decided to start seeing a therapist for the first time last summer because I felt like anxiety and some mild depression during covid life was making it hard for me to cope. It’s been about six months of weekly sessions, and so far pretty much all I do is talk about myself/my feelings. She chimes in sometimes but the overarching message I feel like I’ve gotten is “life is hard right now,” and “you are too hard on yourself.” It’s helpful in the sense that I feel like I’m not burdening my husband with all of that as much, but bigger picture wise I still feel pretty lousy and hopeless. Maybe my expectations of feeling demonstrably better after a few months were just unrealistic? Should I just try a different therapist, or, maybe therapy doesn’t work unless you have more severe mental illness/behaviors you need to change (rather than just feeling down/bored/worried like I do).
I’ve noticed that my husband’s hair is thinning in the back. Mention it, or no? He’s been so stressed out at work that I haven’t mentioned it since I’ve noticed, because I know it would put him in a bad mood – and honestly there’s probably not much to do about it, right?
I’m curious – is Texas getting covered in the media where you all are? I’m in Houston and we’ve had no power since Monday with below freezing temps. We’re under a boil water advisory – but aren’t really getting much water anyways. I keep getting emails requesting meetings from people in the northeast and I’m not sure how to respond! Kids (6, 5, and 1) think it’s fun to sleep together in sleeping bags by the fire but it’s getting really old.
And we’re lucky! Our room was 38 degrees when we woke up but I’m sure it’s worse in Dallas! But yeah, if I get another deal checkin call I may scream! I haven’t had much cell service – seem to have it right now? – so probably just seems like we are dropping the ball. DH having the same experience.
Since Saturday morning, I’ve slept a total of ~10 hours, including two completely sleepless nights (Saturday night and last night). This is not for lack of trying, including calling in sick to work and trying to sleep during the day. I’ve struggled with insomnia for a long time and it’s been worse during Covid, but when I’ve had sleepness nights before but I was always able to nap or fall asleep very early the following day due to sheer exhaustion. I’ve never experienced anything like this before where my body (brain?) will literally not let me go to sleep even though I’m so exhausted I can’t see straight and can barely stand up. I’ve tried every OTC sleep aid (Melatonin, benadryl, Unisom) with no success and I’m seeing a doctor today who I hope will give me Ambien or something like that. I guess I’m wondering if anyone ever experienced something like this and can give me positive anecdotes about getting beter or if anyone has success with Ambien – you hear so many scary stories about it that I’m terrified to take it, but I don’t see an alternative at this point. I also think I really need to take some time off work to focus on getting healthy and am wondering if anyone has any advice about how best to broach that with my boss. My job isn’t especially stressful but I serve in an on-call rotation and although I almost never get calls in the middle of the night, I think the stress of potentially getting a call that wakes me up has been a contributing factor to insomnia/sleep problems for me in the past. And I don’t see how I can be on call if I’m taking a sleep aid like Ambien.
I took my 10-year-old son to a physical today, and his pediatrician is concerned about his weight. He’s average height (can’t remember the exact number right now) and only 60 pounds. He eats pretty well and has a good appetite, although the amounts are inconsistent from meal to meal and day to day. He doesn’t drink milk (doesn’t like it), but he loves cheese. He eats meat a few times a week (chicken tenders, beef tortellini, etc.), as well as meat substitutes (Morningstar veggie sausages, etc.), but since I’m a vegetarian I prefer not to make meals where I get “up close and personal” with meat. (The doctor hasn’t uploaded her advice to the patient portal yet, so I’ll definitely be checking her notes as well!)