Back from vacation

I'm back from our beach vacation in the Hamptons but not for a very long time as we are leaving again for Europe (Paris, to visit my mother in law and then Milan, where my parents live) in a week.
I have to say that I really missed blogging and reading everybody's else blog for an entire week; I'm trying to catch up but if I don't comment or comment back, please don't be mad at me, rest assured that I really enjoy reading you!

Our stay was really nice and relaxing even if we had two days of bad weather (OK, to be honest, three days but I have decided to be positive about vacations in general and I have to say that even if when I woke up to the third day of cloudy sky I was quite upset, my memory has already transformed it in an uninterrupted sunny week, mostly because the two last days have been gorgeous).

Because of the weather though I couldn't wear all the nice outfits that I had planned to (although in the end my suitcase was pretty compact) and I never had the chance to wear the Playa dress (but I have an "occasion" coming up next Sunday and I will wear it shine or rain!). To be honest with you I was more focused on spending quality time with my husband and my daughter than on what I was going to wear for dinner, so that's fine. Actually, the other reason why I ended up not wearing the nicest clothes that I had brought is that we found out pretty soon that my daughter has a tendency to be car sick. You must be surprised that we hadn't found out before but we rarely take the car and the last time that we travelled by car for more than the 45 minutes that it takes to go from home to the airport she was a two-month-old baby (and at that age you can't really tell). So after her throwing up on me (and obviously herself and the car seat) on the first day, I didn't want to take the risk of having my clothes stained forever with my daughter's vomit. Actually I had put on my Imperial tee for travelling but I must have had a premonition because I changed myself at the last minute and I wore a pretty old ribbed tank that got the vomit instead.

The other effect of the days of bad weather is that my pictures look all the same because you surely know how it happens when you are shy of taking pictures the first days thinking that you have plenty of time, then you wait for better weather/light and then you end up shoting like crazy the last day and you're wearing the same clothes in all the pictures (that in this case aren't even "clothes" to properly speak but more like swimming suits and cover ups). So I'm sorry but I don't have fabulous outfit pics to share with you but I want to share this one, because of the Jcrew classic straw hat that I haven't seen often in the blogosphere (plus my daughter hides almost all of my body so I don't have to worry that this is going to end up in some dubious site):



The straw hat is a really good quality hat but as you can see it's pretty big and sometimes I felt like an old movie star. I don't think that I would have paid $48 for it but I got it at the first NY sample sale for $8 and that was clearly a bargain.
The bikini is a Petit Bateau that I bought on supersale a month ago and I really like the emerald color for the beach. I have two Jcrew solid bikinis that I bought back in the winter for our Jamaica gateway in February (my first Jcrew swimwear) but I'm not sure that they're very flattering after all, so I don't think that I'm going to buy Jcrew swimsuits again (I mean there is plenty of choices out there).

I didn't miss staying away from Jcrew for a week (I realize while I'm writing it that I must be really addicted because is not like I was saying a year) but I did acually dragged my husband to the East Hamptons Jcrew store (thanks rain!) that I was curious about and I took some pics for you. From the outside it looks like any other Jcrew store:




but besides the fact that the store is much bigger than I had expected, they have added some beach-themed decoration touches inside like these wooden surf tables casually leaning on a wall (this is the only pic that I have because a SA approached me and told me that they didn't allow people taking pictures):



What I liked the most though is that they had their "exclusive" shopping bags (but I guess that they have those in other beach stores like Malibu). I didn't buy anything but I asked the SA if I could have an empty bag as a "souvenir". She gave me a look like I was some weirdo, I'm not sure if because I used the word souvenir or because I wanted one (but she couldn't refuse me that, right?). Anyway, I took a pic of the bag to show you and then throw it away because I'm NOT a weirdo and I don't collect Jcrew shopping bags yet (in case you can't read, it says Jcrew "at the beach"):



I have a couple of "fashion-related" posts that I really want write this week but I have a lot of things to do (laundry and packing again!) and I know that time is going to fly and then we are off again for another two weeks. Please bear with me!