A Quick Note Before We Get Started:
I’m feeling a little bit vulnerable here. I’m writing this after I created this whole beautiful post and I’m sitting here reviewing it. I decided/forgot/didn’t care to edit my rolls out of this post. Something that I’m terribly ashamed of is my loose skin. I have so much of it around my torso after having Logan, that it shows up in almost all of my images. I’m not always photoshopping myself, but I am usually standing in a way or wearing something that hides it. This is one of my favorite looks and shoots I’d put together to date. I don’t want to focus on this skin roll, but it’s something that makes me so nervous, self-conscious and uncomfortable that I have to bring attention to it. Learning to love my body after baby is something I’m still doing. I’m working hard every day to change myself while trying to remember that I should still love myself. So, I’m working on embracing my flaws because no-body is perfect. I hope you enjoy this change of post.
My Dream Floral A-Line Skirt
I saw this A Line skirt about 3 years ago on a risky unknown website. I immediately fell in love with it. I could picture myself wearing it with a scone on my plate and the cutest teacup in my hand. So of course, I decided to take that risk and give some strange online shop online my credit card information. A few weeks later (6 I think) I got the package at my front door. I was disappointed when I learned that I had to pay duties (under $20), but I didn’t really care.
You know when you want something, and you order it online, and then as it slowly ships to your house the anticipation builds up and you have no idea if it will live up to the mental hype that you’ve created.
Well, guess what – it was the only thing, of the 9 things that I ordered that was perfect. And when I say perfect, mean honey, it not only makes me feel like a duchess but looks like one fit for a duchess. The material was superb, the print was perfect, and the fit was perfect. I was in love. But since this was 3 years ago, I was just a girl working at a cowboy-themed restaurant with no afternoon tea to go to.
But Here We Are Now…
Now that I’m older, wiser, and FINALLY fitting in this skirt again, I was so excited to make up any reason to wear it. I made this shoot just for fun, to have a reason to wear this skirt that I’ve been wanting to wear for 3 years now and to reward myself for working hard enough to fit into it again.
Just as I expected, I felt like the prettiest girl whose late to go to tea in the fanciest tea room in the city. I also felt like I should be heading to Paris. That’s how I decided on my location. For all those wondering, these photos were shot at The Exhibition Place in Toronto. They have these absolutely beautiful arches there that are Paris-worthy. I’m thinking of doing some engagement photos with Brandon here if we ever get around to it.
The Case of the Stolen Flowers
In case you aren’t following along on my Insta-Stories (which you should be, that’s my favorite platform!), you might not have know that shooting this look, took a little mischief. That’s right, your girl had to go a little deep and get super sneaky. The last time I did a shoot with flowers, I spent about $50 – which thinking about it now, I was insane! Why would you spend $50 on flowers that you just want to take pictures with? I have no idea what my brain is thinking sometimes.
So being the DIY kinda girl that I am, I decided that I would go for some natural (aka free) flowers this time. Walking through my condo gardens, I found the most beautiful pink and white peonies growing. So I prayed that they would last until shoot day. So, on my shoot day, as I’m rushing around to get all of my looks packed, I remembered about my peonies. Well wouldn’t you guess it, they didn’t last… Only about 3 flowers were left intact. Feeling even more guilty than I would be if I were stealing from a big garden (because no, they all had to die and leave like none for me), I took my scissors, cut those 3 bad boys and ran back to my car. I drove away like a madman thinking that police were going to be following me any second. But, we were in the clear.
Or so I thought.
As I get to Exhibition Place, I take a look and see that my flowers are basically dead. Okay cool. I figured if I put them in my purse they might look really cute. Also no. As I was walking 99% of the pedals proceeded to fall off! So cool. Luckily you can’t really tell in the photos unless you are looking at it, which you now are because I just told you to… Good job Monika.
The lesson here: the five finger discount is actually a scam.
Outfit Details
In case you really loved this look here are all the details. Included are some similar skirts from not so sketchy websites that may or may not ever arrive.
Some Other Pretty A-Line Skirts
It’s been a while since I did a post like this. I love creating a post that solves a problem. But, I also love creating posts that share one of my stories (because honey, I’ve got a few…). Please let me know with a comment below which type of post you prefer ♡
