How to Look Pulled Together on Your Next Trip

First thing to do whenever you start packing for a family trip: pack your outfits first. 

W.O.W. Pick: Merci Merci

J'ai la chance d'avoir une grande soeur, mais en plus j'ai la chance d'avoir une grande soeur qui habite à Paris (ou sur Paris comme elle dirait). Elle est ma source secrète de tout ce qui se passe à Paris.

Aujourd'hui, je partage avec vous ce qu'elle m'a confié tout dernièrement. La fameuse boutique Merci est maintenant en ligne! 

Pour ceux qui y sont déjà allés, le nouveau site aide à apaiser l'attente jusqu'à votre prochaine visite. Pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas, c'est une introduction à une des meilleures boutiques. 

Le site est bien, mais n'équivaut certainement pas à une visite en personne. 

Merci à ma chère collaboratrice parisienne pour partager avec les lecteurs de W.O.W. son fameux carnet d'adresses. 

MERCI
111 boulevard Beauharnais
Paris

Office Chic: Ze Trench

Finding your perfect trench is like finding your perfect Starbucks drink. Tall, short, mocha, hot chocolate, the list goes on. The trick is you gotta try different ones before finding the perfect one, especially if you're vertically-challenged like me and were not going for the Inspector Gadget look. 

Professionnelle à la recherche d'un imperméable disponible pour de nombreuses balades printanières. Il doit être ceintré, pas trop long, pas trop court, pas trop de boutons, la bonne couleur, sérieux et décontracté, et au bon prix. Si vous êtes croyez être 'Ze One', veuillez me laisser un commentaire à ce post. Merci!

W.O.W. Pick: Yogaqua

This looks like a fun workout: yoga on a paddleboard. More info here and here. Leave your yoga mat at home!

Source: updates.thomsonreuters.com via Fiona on Pinterest

The Book Club: Zoé et Théo

La mignonne série Zoé et Théo nous a aidés sauvés à maintes reprises à préparer la famille à l'avance pour des événements comme aller à la piscine publique, se promener en ville ou prendre l'avion. 

Les enfants aiment bien la complicité fraternelle entre ce charmant duo et leur débrouillardise dans les nombreuses aventures. Bon ce ne sont pas ces mots exacts qu'ils ont utilisés, mais bref, c'est ce que j'aimerais entendre s'ils étaient interpellés à en faire une critique littéraire. Voici donc nos mes titres préférés, bonne découverte!

La Pause Café: The Design Files

New feature I'm trying out today: La Pause Café is designed for all of you who sometimes have to eat lunch at your desk to get all your work done. Some cool websites to escape to for 5 minutes. Let me know what you think or have sites to share!

Une nouvelle rubrique à essayer: La Pause Café. Conçue pour ceux et celles qui doivent rester au bureau durant le lunch pour compléter leurs tâches. Des sites cool pour une petite escapade de 5 minutes. Faites-moi signe si vous aimez ou avez des suggestions!

The Design Files

New Kid on the Block: Studio Bump

For all you mama-to-be and hot new mamas in Montreal, meet your new best friend: Studio Bump. Make sure to pass by their open house on April 16th and see what wonderful things you can do to get the real 'glow'. I did yoga throughout my 2 pregnancies, but I wish I had their Bootcamp class!

La nouvelle meilleure amie des dames enceintes et nouvelles mamans: Studio Bump. La nouvelle adresse en ville qui mettra en valeur vos nouvelles courbes! Faites un ptit tour à leurs portes ouvertes du 16 avril pour tester leur nouveau concept. Le Bootcamp class serait mon premier choix!

Care for Daycare: Thank you!

Our friend Lorraine commented on the original Care for Daycare post to share with us all that the petition worked (!) and discussions will be planned to look at all options.

Thanks to Lorraine for the follow-up and to you all for taking the time to read about this topic.

Have a good week!

The Book Club: The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein.
About the act of giving, selflessness, selfishness, happiness, sadness and consequences. It may sound a little dramatic for a children book, but it's delivered in a light way.
I was first attracted to this book for its clean black and white graphics and short texts.

WOW Tip: The author's profile picture on the back is not the most child-friendly picture, so you might have to hide that picture when reading the story to your children.

Unplanned Early Check-In

Bonjour! I'm currently working on getting Family Fridays out this afternoon. I usually prepare my post and do office work right after I put the kids to bed, but yesterday evening I fell asleep with them and then woke up this morning at 7 instead of my usual 5:30. Mayhem!

So I took a quick shower, prepared my lunch bag and ran like crazy to take the train! The backpack came in handy this time again. Did I tell you I'm wearing a backpack now? Yup that's right and maybe I'll be soon wearing high-top white sneakers to work if I keep falling asleep with the kids and wake up late. More on the backpack next week. It's black and it's leather. Office chic at its best!

See you soon on WOW for a Family Fridays in style. À bientôt!

Hugs and Rugs

We spend lots of time playing on the floor so why not invest in a fabulous rug. Here are some of my favorites picks.

Office Chic: Florals

With daylight savings, we get to do a full day of work and pick the kids up at daycare when there's still daylight. Gotta love it.
Here's some inspiration to get ready for spring. Sprinkle some floral prints into your work wardrobe without looking like a wallflower.

Who Let the Belly Out

Hatch offers great looks to enjoy during pregnancy and post-delivery. Here are my favorite looks:

Wear to Work

Grey's Anatomy

It was back in 2008. I still remember the look on my coworker's face when she asked me what paint color I had picked for my nursery and I answered grey. Grey?!? It's as if she was feeling sorry for my unborn child and his boring future room.

I found grey to be quite organic and a soothing background to all the colorful toys and action that goes on when a baby arrives.

Here's an example of the gorgeous grey nursery of one lucky baby. How about you, ever had grey fever?

Action Mom

Monday mornings are tricky. It feels like starting the same new routine over every week, and by the end of the week, you're glad you've mastered the organized chaos and its little surprises.

Whenever I feel like wearing pajamas to work, I think of all you cool moms out there. This morning was definitely one of those mornings so I went straight to my no-fail website, The Glow.  

Here's a glimpse at their inspiring and fashionable moms.

Laura Garcia

Stock Up On Stockholm

With all the money I saved from this week's W.O.W tip, I spotted some pretty neat and organic items from Ikea's new 2013 Stockholm collection. Loving all the natural wood pieces and hoping that the quality and prices will meet my expectations so that I can scream 'START THE CAR!!'

A sneak peek at the new Stockholm collection.

My favorite IKEA commercial.

WOW Tip: How to trade a Shopping Urge with a Closet Purge

Step 1: Scan through your treasure closet and put away in a box anything you haven't worn in a year;
Step 2: Leave it in a safe place for at least a year to make sure the trend doesn't miraculously come back (in my case 2-3 years);
Step 3: When ready, officially mark it as a 'Give' to confirm that it's a go and there's no turning back;
Step 4: On your way to the donation center, think of all the memories you had and how someone else will get to create new ones, either at a job interview or at a Halloween party;
Step 5: Drop it. Turn around and then run!

To ease the separation pain, here's some great snaps from Cher's closet in Clueless. Maybe it'll convince you to keep the plaid miniskirts after all. As if!

Words of Wismom (W.O.W.) Tip: Calculate the total worth of the clothes you're giving away. Save your lucky number on your cellphone and next time you go shopping, look up the number and remind yourself that one day, it will end up in the 'Give' box. This has helped me walk away so many times.

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The Magic of Plastic

In an ideal world, kids would play with those lovely wooden toys that come in a range of colors straight out of a Gauguin painting, but somehow they tend to run towards the primary-colors plastic toys that make you want to say Ughhh.

I learned to appreciate them more after I read a recent article in Fortune on the invention process. That playlab sure sounds interesting.

via

Did you know Fisher-Price's been around since 1930? Quite impressive.

Here's their all-time classic:

The Chatter Phone

Here's my modern take of the plastic toy:

The Bilibo

What's your favorite plastic toy?

WOW Tip: Find some nice and affordable plastic toys in yard sales, online classifieds or thrift stores. Their vintage feel gives them a cool vibe and lets you spend hours of quality bonding with your kiddos.

Have fun!

The Morning After

Forgive me right away for the misleading title and the stylish outfit. This post ain't about 'The Morning After a Fabulous Night Out with your Friends', it's more about 'The Morning after the Whole Week the Kids had the Flu'.

Fortunately for us, the same sloppy chic style applies. After a week of runny noses, saline nasal mist mania and minimal sleep, this outfit might even make you look forward to the next round, which is in about 7-10 days if you're lucky.

Flu season officially started for us last week with both kids being sick back to back. This meant pushing all work deadlines until the last minute and finally waking up at 4 am on Friday to prepare for an 8 am presentation.

WOW tip:  A gorgeous bag like this Celine one helps take the attention away from a less desirable kind of bag, the under eye ones.

Source: sincerelyjules.com via Words of Wismom on Pinterest

Camping in the City

We love having a teepee at home, and I think I might actually love it more than the kids. They add such a fun statement to an adult decor, and come in quite useful to hide all the toys when there's a surprise visit. 

Ours is in the living room. We went for the classic white canvas fabric and it fits really well into our minimalist style. So on friday evenings, we'd prepare smores by the fireplace and then make up stories about wolves and rockets in the teepee. It's impromptu camping without having to plan ahead after you've had a long week of deadlines at work and suddenly realize it's the weekend.

Lately, I've been trying to find an excuse to get a new teepee. Why you may ask? Because this new one from Land of Nod is just oh-so-irresistible. Add a stripe to a teepee and voilà, 'I die' like Rachel Zoe would say.

Maybe we should get a teepee for each kid, just to be fair. What do you think?

Words of Wismom (WOW): Don't miss Land of Nod's first-ever pop-up toy shop in Soho, NYC to complete your holiday shopping. 

PS: I`ll do a post soon on my favorite teepees. The options are amazing since the days when I first got one. They make great gifts too! We got ours from my brother when he was living in NYC. Merci Frérot!

(Photos by Domino, Land of Nod)