It’s been a little while since I featured my last proper maternity outfit on the blog – winter will do that to you! Not only has it been way too cold and dreary to get out and take outfit photos, I’ve also been battling the flu for two weeks (just wait for all that moaning in my next pregnancy diary!), but I’ve also been lacking in clothes to take photos in, mostly because I’m wearing a variation on the same 2 or 3 outfits with stripy tops, maternity jeans and leggings most days!
AD – This dress was gifted to me by PinkBlush.
But I’ve picked up a few new maternity items over the past month or so and I’m ready to share a couple of them properly. While the whole maternity capsule wardrobe thing has been kind of awesome – and has resulted in me clearing out even more of my wardrobe around a kind of Marie Kondo “sparking joy” vibe, but also because I realised I simply won’t wear those things again – in reality, I’ve been struggling on the limited wardrobe I have. I’ve just found it a little bit uninspiring, which is also kind of an effect from the winter weather.
PinkBlush got in contact to offer me a piece of clothing to try out from their site, and I jumped at the chance. They’re an American maternity brand who describe themselves as “for the modern mother”. I’d spotted other bloggers and people in my due date groups wearing their clothing and had been a bit jealous that I hadn’t been able to try any of their pieces, so this was an excellent opportunity. Their clothing seems more on the stylish and trendy side than most maternity wear which is functional and bland. Plus the pieces seem to stand on their own feet rather than being basics that can be mixed and matched into outfits. While being able to rewear maternity clothing across several outfits was a big priority for me at the beginning, I realised those stand out pieces were where my wardrobe was lacking.
The opportunity also came at an excellent time, with the dress arriving just in time for my baby shower that’s happening this weekend! While I’d planned to keep the dress a surprise, I’ve actually already ended up wearing and photographing it, so here it is – it’s not a wedding dress, anyway!
For my baby shower, I wanted something quite specific from their maternity dresses – something that showed off the bump – what other occasion can you really go all out for with that?! Since I’ll be 36 weeks at the time of it, the bump will really be on show by then! I also wanted to make sure it was cute, fun and had long sleeves – still practical! I’d like to be able to wear it afterwards if possible too, so this stretchy (very soft) jersey fabric with ruching at the side seams should be good for that.
This Teal Floral Crochet Sleeve dress has ended up being perfect for what I was looking for. The fit is wonderful thanks to the stretch and ruched sides so it’s very comfortable to wear, especially thanks to the soft fabric it’s sewn from. I also love the detail, from the pretty floral design set against a bold teal background to the crochet design on the sleeves. I’m excited to wear this for my baby shower, even if it is primarily blue and, as far as we know, we’re having a girl – can you tell I’m not going for gendered clothing and nursery designs?!
I’d been going back and forth on getting some professional maternity photos taken while pregnant. Ben wasn’t a big fan of being in the photos – he put up with all the photo-taking for the wedding and I even got him persuaded to do engagement ones, mostly because they were included in the price, but he insists that maternity photos are about me and the bump, not him. Anything to avoid photos!
I’d researched a couple of options for getting some photos done, but I realised that I’ve got a pretty alright photographer already with Ben and some good editing software now that’s making me much happier with my photos, so we decided that while these were primarily outfit photos, they also function pretty well as maternity ones too – why spend the extra money when we’ve got plenty of other things to spend it on?! We took some photos that worked well as maternity ones about half way through (see these here), and honestly, I think I’m more comfortable with Ben behind the camera than I would be a professional I don’t know. So here are my maternity photos as I reach the end, eek!
Many of PinkBlush’s maternity clothes seem very summery and spring-focused, with soft pastel colours, florals and lace decorating fitted and stretchy garments. Even though, as I keep saying, it’s the depths of winter, I was really drawn to these ones. I’m also a huge fan of their maxi dresses too, and if I were pregnant in summer, I think the stretchy wrap and floaty versions of these would be all I would wear! I think I needed some of their vibrance to brighten my dreary winter days!
And as it turns out, I’m not really wearing this dress in a very “wintery” way. I’ll admit that I did have a coat over the top of this that I removed for the photos, and of course, I had to wear tights – it’s far too cold not to! But at the moment, I’m basically just wearing two pairs of shoes – the flat ones pictured here and a pair of trainers. The flat slip on shoes are a complete necessity right now as I can’t be doing with bending down to zip up boots (in fact, I can barely reach to do so!). And the trainers are also a complete necessity as I need comfort as much as possible right now, and they help to ease the strain on my back – the only problem is that they’re not exactly pretty shoes! Nevertheless, only a little while left until I can get back into other shoes!
You look lovely, the ones on the edge of the yellow-y field are really pro looking! Shout out to Bens skills but mainly you for wearing it so well 😉 xx