Dreams Only Girlfriends Know

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Also known as, “the day after my birthday.” The two days are separate, mind you – not to be combined or muddled.  I always hated it when people gave me Valentinesy gifts for my birthday.  There was also the boyfriend who thought he was clever and gave me a combo “big” gift for both my birthday and Valentine’s Day.  Needless to say, that relationship went nowhere.  Mr. Dreamer has never done that – in six February’s together.  LOVE HIM.

This year, though, he outdid himself.  He took on daddy duty for the weekend so I could hang with my girls.  Remember them?  Jessica, Leslie and I went to college together and have some fantastic, never to be shared in public, memories – and we love adding to those memories in our thirties.  Why not?

These two gorgeous gals came over from LA and we had a great weekend… dinners, hikes, shopping, wine, looooong chats, tears, hugs, baby cuddling, lots of laughter.

For the record, Leslie absolutely bought that “outfit” and will find a way to work it into her one-woman Broadway show someday.

I must admit, the best part of the weekend for me was when these two fashionable ladies tore apart my closet.  We dragged everything out.  I tried on countless combos.  They gave honest thumbs-up or thumbs-down.  They helped me figure out new things to wear and *gasp* told me I could wear skinny jeans and/or leggings in public (without a shirt or tunic almost down to my knees).  I’m still holding on to a few pregnancy pounds – for the memories, you know? It’s hard to let that go, emotionally, of course.  I’ll never be able to do the leggings – something in my soul just says NO – but I did decide to take them at their word and wore skinny jeans out to my birthday dinner with the Mr.

Why, yes, I was that lady taking a picture of myself in the restaurant bathroom.  Trust me, it’s better than taking it in my bathroom (the cleaning ladies come today… whew!).

Not bad!  I actually felt comfortable and …wait for it… sexy. 🙂

And confident enough to inhale my birthday dessert.

(In case you’re curious, we’re at my favorite Scottsdale restaurant, Olive & Ivy.  It’s our third year in a row eating there for my birthday!  I love it.)

So, I’m another year older – and finally not dressing in baggy post-maternity tents.  Yay, me!

***

As you can tell, most of the photos above were taken with my iPhone, in not-so-great lighting.  However, you should see the photos before I “fixed” them with my favorite iPhone app…

Not bad, huh?  The app is called Snapseed.  It’s like a dumbed-down version of PhotoShop for your phone – really easy to use.  I got it for free during a promotion, and it looks like it’s free right now – so, GET IT.  (I think it normally runs $4.99)

And this concludes your lesson in iPhone photo editing and girlfriend fashion helping for today.  Come back tomorrow to see my bathroom drawer.  Seriously.

PS: Snapseed didn’t pay me or ask me to write anything about their app.  I just like it.

PPS: Jessica and Leslie didn’t pay me or ask me to write about their fashion advice. I just like it. I like a lot.