Washable Workwear Wednesday: Floral Tie-Neck Smocked-Hem Popover
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During the transition from winter to spring, I love wearing dark florals — they meld with my winter wardrobe palette of black/navy/gray, but remind me that spring will come soon.
Dark florals have been popular for a while now, so there are lots of great options. Ann Taylor’s Floral Tie-Neck Smocked-Hem Popover stands out — it features a split neck with ties, and elasticized cuffs (perfect for pushing up when you need to get down to business).
The pattern of colorful, cheerful flowers would work nearly year round. It’s such a versatile piece — I could see styling it with a black suit for work, black leather trousers for an edgier look, or jeans for the weekend.
The top is $94.50 and available in sizes XXS–XXL, regular and petite (but be on the lookout for Ann Taylor’s frequent sales).
A plus-size option from Eloquii is on sale for $41.98 at Nordstrom (marked down from $69.95) and comes in sizes 14W–28W.
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?
How is everyone managing the shortened daycare hours? Seems like from the informal poll the other day we’re pretty much all facing it. Early in the pandemic I think people were understanding, but now I’m regularly booked before 8am and after 5 (we have coverage 7:30-4:30, though obviously have to leave a bit before that to do dropoff/pickup).
We have been switching off but we are seeing more and more conflicts (ie we both have a high-priority 4-5pm). I block starting at 4:30 but sometimes the VP’s assistant will message me to schedule directly, or like last night my husband’s boss just called him. I guess the answer is just stick to our boundaries, but I’m getting fed up that 10/10 of my male colleagues have a wife at home who handles everything so they literally shower and hop on the computer at 7am and stay there til 6pm and wonder why I can’t do the same.
I’m looking to add additional shades to our east-facing window this summer to block out the sun in the morning.
Current window treatments are standard blinds, but they are not light blocking. Has anyone tried the DIY solutions that you cut to size and stick to the top of the window frame?
Any recs?
I’m frustrated that our hours are still short – 7:30-4:30. The teachers can all get vaccines in my area, but they’re not mandating them, and they’re not giving us a date when hours will be expanded. It’s a sellers market, so they don’t need to improve.
Is there a point when we need to worry about baby becoming dependent on his hatch white noise for sleep? I’m planning to pack it for an upcoming trip so he can sleep, and it’s pretty bulky. We are visiting vaccinated grandparents and will be sleeping in the same room as him.
Kid will be 8 months soon, and we use it for naps at home and overnight sleep.
talk to me about how to evaluate public schools when purchasing a house. i know that a lot of people are currently feeling quite down on public school due to covid, but our oldest won’t start Kindergarten until 2023, so hopefully things will be better by then (as an aside – if you switched your kids to private school due to covid, do you think you’ll keep them there forever? i think the makeup of public schools could change due to covid). i attended private school my whole life so don’t really know how to tell if a school will be a good fit or not. we are deciding between areas that are adjacent, but zoned to three different elementary schools. the ‘best’ school of the three is quite large – 8-10 kindergarten classes in a typical year, how much should that matter? would you send your kid to a title I school?
Is it easier to wrangle kids into carseats once you flip them forward facing? My 3 year old is incredibly strong-willed, plus physically strong and also very big for her age (almost 40 lbs and like 43 or 44″). When she decides she’s not getting in her carseat, it’s almost impossible for me to get her in. Fortunately most days she’s cooperative or at least can be reasoned with, but on the days that she completely loses it and fights hard, I am completely at a loss. We’re switching to FF soon because of her weight so any chance this will get easier then? Any other strategies?
Signed, yesterday at daycare pickup I actually called my husband and asked him to drive to her school to help me force her into the seat. I ended up getting her in before he left the house but WHEW that was not a fun day.
Non-parent here. My town’s FB page has turned into a massive debate over school issues. I just had a quick question as a passive bystander to help me understand some of the arguments. At what age is it reasonable to expect a child to be able to independently log into a remote classroom?
The issue has to do w/ the school requiring synchronous learning on remote days and cameras must be on but backgrounds are allowed. They are going to keep the non-independent age group asynchronous since working parents have stated they can’t do their job (even from home) and manage the log-ins. So now the big debate is what should the cutoff age be.
No dog in this fight but I was just curious what’s a fair expectation. There is a strong contingent pushing for 7th grade to be the cutoff but I’m pretty sure my nieces and nephews were using computers independently by 3rd or 4th grade.
2 tech related questions, please. Thanks in advance!
1) Any recommendations for a learn to read app for my 5 year old in preK? I’m looking for something we can download (happy to pay) onto our iPad ahead of a long car trip. She likes the idea of learning to read, but she isn’t mature enough to put in the work with DH or me (we’ve got various learn to read books at home, and she has no patience for the process, which is fair with her only being 5 and all). We already have Khan Academy Kids and are looking for something different. I don’t care one way or another if she learns to read now, it just seems like an idea for something to pass the time in the car.
2) Can someone tell me how the audiobook apps work? Especially the ones connected to a local library. Any recommendations for audiobooks for a 5 year old girl?
Any recs for treating toddler allergies? Our 14 month old seems to be suffering with runny nose, itchy eyes, etc. We do have a humidifier going at all times. Can also call the ped but would prefer minimal medication.
PSA: In response to Biden’s directive yesterday to vaccinate educators immediately, the pharmacies in the federal retail pharmacy program (CVS, Meijer, Rite-Aid etc) are now supposed to be vaccinating educators (including higher ed) regardless of state eligibility. I work at a university in a state that is doing strictly age-based vaccination with no priority for educators and I know a dozen people who got shots at retail pharmacies today and many more with appointments in the coming days.
Just a rant — my husband’s boss sent out an email to their whole team saying that telework was being abused and that starting next week, everyone should be in the office unless they have a good reason, and that he will be evaluating reasons on a case by case basis. The good reason is the pandemic, right??! It is not over yet. My husband shares an office with one other person and they have been alternating days in so they can have the room to themselves, but now we don’t know whether that’s good enough. So annoyed.
We ordered the ones that Wirecutter recommends and were very happy with them
If you were going to do a Zoom storytime to 3-year-olds, would you try to use Libby or an app to screen-share or try to hold the book up to the camera?
How many of you will be QFH more frequently after the pandemic? I already know that I won’t be returning full time in the office to my employer. It impacted our quality of life too much for I o be worth it any longer. I had stellar reviews at year end and I’m th only employee they’ve allowed to WFH. Is this something I bring up now or when they ask me to come in?
How much do you pay for housecleaning? I have a 4 bed (plus den), 3 bath house. Our old cleaners did a decent job and only charged around $175 per cleaning, but they’re terribly unreliable so we’re breaking up with them. The new service I found charges $230, which seemed fairly reasonable but then I read the list of things they don’t include and it’s really long – taking out the trash, cleaning the microwave and fridge and changing the sheets are all add-ons that you have to pay for. Our old cleaners included all that.