Hip to the mom beat.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Brightly colored reconstructed dresses that come in size Eleanore?! This is probably close to what my own personal heaven would look like. COURTNEYCOURTNEY, based in Chicago, makes fashions for pets, people, and for your home. I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful designs. What makes her pieces stand out the most to me, is that each one is one of a kind. And while people often toss that descriptive phrase around, I think her items should be the dictionary definition. You'd think that in between her job as a full time designer, and doing personal trunk shows for the local mama's, Courtney would be wiped out. When answering the big question about wholesale orders (which I'm sure she gets swamped with), she says, "I am one designer with two hands" ...so classy. Courtney has sold 321 (make that 322!) items since she started selling on Etsy in August of 2007. While browsing through her shop, I'm struck with glee at the sight of an Air Force dress! I've been dying for something like this. See, we happen to live on an Air Force base out in the middle of nowhere Texas. And while we like to show our Air Force pride, we're not the kind of people that decorate our cars with 593 support the troops stickers, or decorate our home with American Flags. We live in America, and most of the time that's good enough for us. I am guilty of sporting an "I heart my Airmen" sticker on the back of my mom mobile. At first it was kind of cool in an "I heart NY" sticker kind of way. But now I think its time to replace it with an "I heart bouffants" sticker. So if anyone sees one of those driving around, let me know!! When you join the Air Force, you're given about 10 billion AF shirts and sweatshirts. They fill up your closet. Literally. And while you don't mind wearing it at first, after awhile it gets old, and they get pushed to the back of the clothing rack. There they will stay until you need to color your hair or paint the walls. Courtney has done what all of us Air Forcers have tried doing, but failed at. Shes taken one of those standard closet absorbing shirts, and transformed it into the hippest baby outfit your base has ever seen. With a purple collar and purple striped sleeves, the toddler that wears it is sure to be a hit with the cart pushers at the commissary. And if you're unfamiliar with the cart pushers... well let me just tell you. So just like any other grocery store, you go into the commissary (which is just a fancy way to say grocery store on base), grab a cart, and do your shopping. Then at checkout, things get a little weird. After you unload all of your groceries and they bag them up, they take your cart away from you, and put your bags into a special parking-lot-friendly cart. ....ooook. So just as you're about to grab it and go, someone grabs it for you. So you think "All right! The commissary is great!". Until you realize that these people work on tips only. ...Crap. And if you're like us, we never carry cash, ever. We use our debit card only. So they get out to your car, open your hatchback, and put all of your brown paper bags neatly on top of your dirty baby blankets and folded up stroller. There is no nice way to tell someone you don't have money to tip them. Now that we understand how it works, Christopher will usually politely tell them no thank you, and push it himself. But if you're a mom, with a past nap time baby, you need that cart pusher, and you need them now. So if you ever find yourself on a military base, headed to the commissary, carry cash. And if you ever find yourself looking for a rockin reconstructed outfit for you, your pet, or your little one, talk to COURTNEYCOURTNEY.