I Am Back (With a New Dress)

I am back! Sorry for the long absence, I din't meant to disappear for so long and in fact I had started to write a post last Wednesday to let you know about a great find but then Blogger went on strike and then I got really too busy with my daughter's birthday party. I still can't believe that she turned 4 and the baby and toddler years are definitively gone. She turned into this beautiful little girl who amazes me every day with her unbiased vision of the world.
The party was on Saturday (day of her birthday) and even if it was held in one of the city venues specialized in kids birthday parties (namely, a gym), I wanted to wear something a little special. I changed myself three times and in the end I settled for the lady lace popover (the new one that I exchanged and didn't make it here for mother's day), white matchstick (probably not the best choice for a kid's party as some cake landed on them) and a statement necklace by Madewell (from last year). The necklace was a nice touch on the lady lace sweater. Here we are at home, after the party, with our special guest (the party had a Minnie Mouse theme, as my daughter LOOOOVES Minnie Mouse):

It was really a nice party and she had a blast. Even if I hadn't ordered a special cake, I did a good job at decorating it with some of her Minnie Mouse toys:

She got to wear her Minnie ears for the cake and I had bought paper mouse ears for the other kids and they all wore them. It was really cute!

Here is the only picture of me at the party, where you can see the necklace:

From a party to another, I went to a grown-up birthday party yesterday night and I wore one of my last purchases, the merino confetti-striped sweater dress. I bought it on sale with free shipping but without extra % off and I have to say that it is totally worth not only the price that I paid for it but probably the original price (of all the overpriced things at JCrew, this one strikes me as almost underpriced). I had never tried it in store so I went with my regular XS. Now, it is really a beautiful dress but in case you are interested and watching for a popback you have to know two things before pulling the trigger. First, this dress is short, which I hadn't anticipated as I don't remember anybody making negative comments re. the length. As you know I am only 5'2" and it hits me way below the knee. As far as it is still flattering (and it is, as it fits me perfectly) I don't mind but taller ladies should know.
The other thing that you have to know is that it is VERY heavy in sequins and there is no way that you can wear this baby in daytime or without an occasion IMO. It isn'y an everyday dress and the sequins all over the sleeves make it difficult to put it on/take it off without a few sequins coming loose in the process. So if you have sequins OCD, this is not for you.
Here are the IRL pics. It was pouring yesterday and I had to take the subway to go to my girlfriend so I wore it with tights, TB peep-toes and a windbraker (that has also the function of covering up the sequins in the subway. As I said not a day dress and not really a subway ride dress either):

Close-up on the sequins (which are a dark pewter color):

May is a particularly busy month here because both my daughter and my husbands are May babies (their birthdays are ten days apart) so as soon as we are done with one birthday there is another one coming up to organize (not that I am complaining, there are worse occupations than organizing birthday parties), so my posts will probably be sporadic.
But I will definitively blog about that great find before it's too late (hint: it's H&M) and a few other things that I ordered/bought recently.

Do you have or are considering the confetti sweater-dress?