Accessory Tuesday: Sprout Suede Tote
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Suede for spring? A definite yes if it’s this pretty green tote from Little Liffner.
This sophisticated, slouchy tote is large enough to fit all your essentials for a day at the office, including a 13” laptop. The inside is lined with durable cotton canvas, and the top is secured with a snap button. There’s also an internal zipper pocket to secure smaller items like your phone and keys.
Little Liffner’s Sprout Tote is $675 and comes in five other colors in addition to my pick (pictured), light green.
Sales of note for 4/16/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – 5,521 new markdowns for women!
- Ann Taylor – 40% off your entire purchase + 50% off one full-price item
- Banana Republic Factory – 50%-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Eloquii – $29+ select styles + extra 40% off all sale
- J.Crew – Spring Event: 40% off sitewide + extra 40% off all sale
- J.Crew Factory – 40%-70% off everything + 60%-70% off spring faves
- M.M.LaFleur – New collection just dropped! Use code CORPORETTE15 for 15%
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 40% off select tops + 30% off dresses, skirts, shoes & accessories + 40% off all markdowns
What can we put in Easter Eggs this is not candy, and not coins? Easter gives me such heartburn because all the basket fillers just end up in the trash and my kids do not need any more candy. I’m giving them sidewalk chalk, bath bombs, and a board game. I don’t remember getting anything as a kid, just dying eggs and then finding them.
Does anyone else have a DD who is just… a mess? A beautiful mess, but a mess nonetheless. I love my DD. She is 7. She is just a different gal. She’s my girl who I can buy jeans for, and they’re distressed by the end of the day, I’m talking holes, rips, frayed from who knows what, skidding around on pavement. I don’t think she owns a single garment that doesn’t have a stain, rip or paint on it (and we rarely paint!!) If you give her anything with jelly or any sort of spread, it will somehow get in her hair. Shoes, everywhere. Multiple outfit changes a day. We tried to limit her to 1 day, 1 outfit- did not go well, so we are at 1 day, 3 outfits. 1 at school, 1 after school and sometimes 1 after dinner. She tries to do cartwheels and handstands everywhere. She is so joyful, wears her emotions on her sleeve. She’s very creative, a true free spirit. I would love to hear from anyone who shares her energy or who has a child like this themselves. How do you manage?
Somewhat inspired by the thread about making your kid go to activities- how do you determine what activities to try out for your kid? Son will be 5 soon and has played soccer last fall and this spring (season ends in 2 weeks). We’ve been trying to encourage him to try something new, but I don’t even know where to start finding that activity to suggest to him. He’s not interested in tee-ball which is really the only other sport offered by our county at this age.
Karate? Structured swim lessons? Cub Scouts?
He’s at a transitional age where we don’t seem to have a ton of options, but I’d like him to try something else. I just have no idea where to start looking.
Thank you for all the advice about where to stay in DC with kids yesterday!
We’ve narrowed it down to Marriott Metro Centre, Royal Sonesta or the DuPont Circle. All are within budget and the latter 2 are actually under for the days we’re there. If anyone has thoughts or experience with any of these, please share! The big pro of the Marriott is it has an indoor pool which my kids would love. But I worry it’s going to be a little dull being in that area on the weekend. I’ve never heard of the DuPont Circle hotel and wonder why it is priced so low ($210/night), is there something I’m missing?
Did you get your eyes dilated at your eye doctor during pregnancy? I have an eye doctor appointment today and I forgot to ask my OB last week if dilation was safe. I’ll ask my eye doctor today of course. The internet seems to think it’s safe, with some reservations. I’m in my second trimester. I don’t have any eye issues that require careful monitoring, they do it as a matter of course. I’ve skipped it in the past when I had a work conflict and the eye doctor just kind of sighs at me. I had it done last year so I wouldn’t be skipping two years in a row.
Another concern is my drive home from the doctor. I’ve been having some trouble estimating distances while driving. I dinged my mirror on my garage door, I hit a curb at work that I pass every day. I’m not unsafe to drive but I don’t know that I want to further inhibit my driving abilities. Not driving is not an option. Thoughts?
Would love advice from any other part-timers… I’ve been part-time (around 75% of my prior role) for a couple of years now. We don’t have a nanny and my kids only do after-care a couple of days per week (they’re in kindergarten and 2nd). The problem is that sometimes my projects get behind schedule, often for reasons outside of my control, and then I don’t have enough childcare to do catchup. We were supposed to be on spring break last week, and I ended up working a ton and being completely exhausted. I’m really frustrated with the situation and paying for more childcare doesn’t really make sense, given my salary. But I can’t keep working late nights and weekends every time things are behind!
How do you decide when to let kids quit an activity? If my kids don’t like an activity, I have generally let them quit. I now had something new come up where my son (age 6, almost 7) will complain on his way to karate and ask me to not go, but then when he is out of there when I pick him up he will say he had a really good time and is in a good mood. The complaining has been consistent for a few months though (only on the way there), so I am torn on what to do.
Would love some thoughts from the hive on our after-school strategy for next year. My workday ends around 5:00, so that’s the anchor for all of this. Husband has some flexibility but works at his office and isn’t typically home before 5:00.
This year, my 4th grader gets off the bus around 4:30 after attending extended day, enrichment-type classes each day — this is great for us, as he loves the extended day program, can take the bus home (they run only after the extended day), and it gives me more time to work. I continue working until 5:00, then pick up my younger two from school after-care and daycare by 5:30. This works out so well and I feel fortunate that we have this schedule!
Next year, my oldest’s school is changing their busing schedule, and the buses will run only at 3:30 after the normal day ends, and he’d need to be picked up from school ~5 min away at 4:30 if he wants to go to extended day. He could also theoretically walk or bike home on nice days (it’s a bit too far to do that when it’s cold/rainy/gross out). Additionally, my middle will be in Kindergarten and we were hoping she’d take the bus home, which has a stop one house away around 4:10 and she’ll need an adult waiting for her so at the stop for her to be released from the bus. She does have aftercare available at her school until 6:00, which I’d really like to avoid paying for but will if needed. My youngest needs to be picked up by 5:30 regardless.
How would you maximize your time in the afternoon to keep working until 5:00 if possible? I think I’m going to get both older kids to take the bus home and they can occupy themselves until 5:00 or so — but that requires (1) me to take a short break around 4:10 to pick up my middle from the bus stop, and (2) no extended day for my oldest, which he really likes.
kind of a tangent to the below – but where do middle and high school aged kids do their HW? in their own rooms? kitchen table? somewhere else?
It seems to be social-dynamics day, so I’ve got a minor-ish one. My 6.5yo told us she hates riding the school bus because there are two kids (1st and 2nd grade boys, fwiw) on it who touch/ poke her repeatedly and call her dumb names even though she’s asked them to stop. Ignoring them also does not work. It’s a short bus ride, happens occasionally, she can move away from them but sometimes they follow her, and it isn’t producing school refusal or anything like that.
We’ve told her that she can yell STOP and MOVE AWAY FROM ME again; she can go to their level and yell ‘I DON’T LIKE YOUR FACE’ or something silly like that – make them the laughingstock – because that’s what kids understand; and she will not get in trouble with us if they have surrounded her and she has to physically push them away in self-defense. Any other useful strategies? I honestly don’t think teachers or the transport team can or will do much of anything; they have much bigger fish to fry.
I knew this was bound to happen at some point, but my 10-year-old is being made fun of by a classmate for her “hairy legs” and “ugly split ends.” She was friendly with this girl at one point, but frankly, I saw the mean-girl tendencies from a mile away so this didn’t surprise me. My daughter seems to be doing okay and asked me to remove this girl from her Messenger account, which I did. But man, it makes me so mad. As my kids get older and the insults get more personal, I find myself getting triggered by memories of when the mean girls pulled this stuff on me. In fact, I still remember who called MY legs hairy in the 4th grade! Ugh. How do you keep this stuff in check and not project your own ish on your daughters? I know I’m gonna have a hard time when body image starts coming up. I was called chunky many times and was often compared to my petite mom. Seeing pictures of me as a kid, I absolutely wasn’t “chunky,” not that it would’ve made those comments okay! I just wasn’t sleek and slim like we were supposed to be in the 90s.
Can I hear some reassurance or anecdotes about how boys can be socially happy without being an “athlete”? In my small, conforming grade school made up of blue- and pink-collar job families in the 90s, the kids who didn’t play on the schools’ sports teams were outcasts (girls included), and the less athletic boys were bullied. I was unscathed, but my sister had a so-so experience and my brother was bullied. (He’s now a competitive powerlifter, ironically, but the adolescent bullying was serious enough that it hurt him for years after.) My son reminds me a lot of my brother, and I find myself projecting or getting anxious that he will be bullied. I now live in a progressive community where the public school is diverse and offers extracurriculars other than just sports. I want to broaden my idea of what social happiness looks like for young boys, but I don’t have good (any?) examples to draw on. The last thing I want to do is unintentionally impose a version of toxic masculinity.
There was a meme going around a while ago about how a lot of us grew up as “bedroom kids” while our kids are “living room” kids (i.e. those are the places where they play the most and spend the most time.) That is true in my case! Lately, the kids have also taken over our dining table with their arts and crafts. Which is fine – I want to encourage their creativity. But our table is constantly taken over! We don’t have any other rooms for another high table, and anything on a lower table like the coffee table would be in danger of being taken by the dog. Any brilliant ideas? Just accept this phase of life?