June Favorites & The Case for Wearing the Same Outfit All Summer

We're back! After a much-needed week off, Hana is back and keeping it completely real about what went down - newborn life, swaddle struggles, Memorial Day chaos, and just needing a minute to mentally catch-up. This week we're chatting current favorites going into June: no screens at dinner, hosting over going out, getting comfortable being a beginner again, baggy everything, and why we should all be rewearing our outfits this summer. Plus some Summer House reunion thoughts, because obviously.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello everyone, welcome into Hey Hannah. I'm your host, Hannah Ostop Chuck Krause. I am so happy to be back. I just need to confess what went down last week. Because obviously, if you're listening, there was no episode last week. I didn't even clock that I wasn't gonna do it. It was one of those things where I just kept saying, okay, I'm gonna record this afternoon. Okay, I'm gonna record this morning. Okay, I'm gonna record tonight. Honestly, the idea of sitting down and talking just felt overwhelming. If I'm gonna be really completely transparent here. So today, I obviously don't feel that way. I was like so happy to come back. I don't want this podcast to go anywhere, but I mean, just going through the throes of motherhood, it's just been so real. And I think that I think it was a lesson. I'm like, I told myself I kept pushing it off, and I just could not make it happen. I just had to give myself some grace in the moment and be like, Hannah, it's okay if you don't drop an episode this week. So if you're listening to this already, thank you so much for dealing with the fact that I didn't have an episode last week because I firmly believe that consistency is key and I never try to miss a deadline. But lo and behold, your girl was struggling last week. What was last week? Like, what was even going on? Oh, it was coming off the heels of Memorial Day weekend. That's why I was already so lopsided. Tuesday came around, which is normally when I record, and I was like, wait a minute, it's Monday. All week I was confused on what day it was. I don't know if anyone else felt that way. But in terms of Andy Girl, what's going on is that we are trying to transition her out of the swaddle. Now I know, I know. If you don't have kids, you're probably like, okay, what's the problem? Why is that a big deal? I never knew that transitioning anything out of anything would be a big deal. Transitioning a baby out of a swaddle is like, it's just how do I compare this to like human form? Uh no, you know what? There's nothing I can compare it to because as adults, like we would sleep anywhere, right? But it's like trying to tell someone who's been sleeping on one bed in one room. Actually, we're gonna go in a totally different room and you're gonna sleep with all new pillows, comforter, mattress, everything. Cause I feel like as adults, we're sort of picky about how we sleep, right? But we're also tired. I feel like we all would fall asleep anywhere sometimes. Okay, I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. What I'm trying to say is that it's been a little tedious getting this girl to go to sleep for nap time, for bedtime, all of the above. Even just yesterday, because this has been a process. So just yesterday alone, I was up and down the stairs all day trying to get her to nap in her bed. And I finally was just like, you know what? I'm gonna hold her. So by like four o'clock, I was holding her for naps. And that was when we started like a full nap that day. It has just been a little wonky getting her down and getting her on a schedule. But I'm trying. I'm actually really trying to do moms on call and follow that system. Again, I'm not gonna get to in the weeds here because I know that not everybody is in like these early stages of motherhood. I am in the thick of these, like I could talk about the degree of her arm and how it works in the transition out of the swaddle. You know what I mean? Like I'm really in the thick of it here. So I'm not gonna bore you with those details, but praise be, right now she's asleep and she's not swaddled. She's in like a little, I swaddle her blanket so it's like only a tube top, you know, so her arms are open. But yeah, anyways, thank you for bearing with a no episode last week. I really just needed a minute to catch my breath. There were so many things I wanted to talk about, but the idea of sitting and talking just felt so overwhelming. So thank you for letting me just come here and be completely honest about that process. I can't believe it's already June. Happy June, everyone. This is the greatest time of the year. June and July. I try to, every day, I try to think about how much I appreciate this time of year because I don't want it to go by quickly. Last year, I feel like I was robbed of the second half of my summer. That sounds so terrible. I was pregnant. I found out I was pregnant like right after 4th of July, right after I got engaged. And because I was in the throes of first trimester and not feeling really great, I feel like I didn't really get to embrace those last warm days. So now that it's like really warm and just beautiful open window type weather in the Midwest again, I couldn't be more excited. Last month I talked about my favorites of the month, current hyperfixations, ins for the month, whatever you want to call it. And I love doing that. So let's recap a little bit of our favorites from May, or just, you know, these are the things that we're channeling for the month of June. One thing I'm really trying to do that is difficult to do, but it's also the best time of year to do it is no screens during dinner. I will love to watch an episode of TV before bed. I will love to have on a podcast or a show in the background while I'm cooking dinner. Occasionally I'll do that. But specifically during dinner, I'm really trying to reclaim that hour to sort of change the whole energy for the evening. Lately, I've been getting Andy down to sleep around 7, 7:30 for the night. That means that Peter and I finally have our evenings back, which is like, oh my God, I forgot that I used to have time to just sort of like relax and talk to my husband about our days and, you know, talk about what our schedule is for the rest of the week and how we feel about X, Y, and Z and like talk about nothing, just exist together. Reclaiming that time is what I'm really trying to do going forward this month. So no screens during dinner specifically. Because, you know, let's be honest, when you're working, or if you're a new mom like me, you're nap trapped a lot of the time. You're sort of scrolling mindlessly on your phone. And we all have that reflex, right? Where your thumb somehow, your brain isn't even thinking, let me go check Instagram. But somehow your thumb just gets there faster than your brain can even realize what's going on. And you're scrolling and you're looking at dumb crap and you're getting sucked into it and you're thinking, oh, I should buy that, or oh, why don't I look like that? It's insane the hold it has on us. During dinner time, I want to be old school about this, especially now that I have a daughter. I want our habits to be like we sit down, we eat dinner together, we have good old-fashioned chat and enjoy each other's company. And even if there's nothing to talk about, put on a little bit of music, enjoy the silence, read a magazine, like anything. Read a magazine. Oh my God. I used to love reading magazines. By the way, this is a side note. Last night I was I was just eating out of the cereal box, hunting at Cheerios. Do you guys remember the days where you would just eat cereal and you would only look at the back of the box while you were eating the cereal? Like every morning I remember getting up and going, getting ready for school. And instead of looking at a phone or watching TV or anything, because obviously we weren't allowed to watch TV before school, and I didn't have a cell phone. For my entertainment, I would just look at the back of the box and look at all the games or like the weird puzzles they put on the back of the cereal box. And I would sit there like hunched over, trying to figure out some weird I spy puzzle on the back of my cinnamon toast crunch cereal box before going to school. Anyways, I was doing that last night with my honey nut Cheerios, and it was actually a pretty good puzzle. Peter and I got into it. But this is what I'm talking about. Like slow evenings and enjoying the spirit of nothingness. Especially in the summer when the evenings are longer, the sun goes down later. It's like that's a gift, you know? It's such a gift, and you gotta use it. Another favorite for this month is normalizing hosting and not going out. Now I know this has a ceiling. You can't always host people and not go out because that's not fair to any of your friends or family. Like you have to eventually go to them and even it out. But I think in particular for me, I've been so like, I don't want to be one of those moms that never goes anywhere and da-da-da-da-da. And I just have to give grace to the fact that like I very much still have a newborn and saying yes to everything and doing everything and going to all the things that Peter and I used to go to is gonna take some time. And it's not gonna just be super easy, especially in these first three months, let alone the first six months. So the ability to just say, hey, uh, we actually can't do that. But if you want to swing by, or if you want to come by, like I'll make X, Y, and Z, and just celebrating the fact that you could still live, even if you're not going out all the time. Or let's say you're you have young kids and you actually can't go out because bedtime is at 7:30. And so you could only do happy hour. Well, it's like, great, maybe do happy hour and then tell everyone if they want to come over, they can come hang after the kids go to bed. And maybe it's not even hosting, maybe it's not even having people over. It's just actually hanging at home. Again, it's that gift of summer and how it stays later longer and how you can actually just sit with the windows open and enjoy the day. I say this like assuming you're not living in Florida. My Florida friends are probably like, Hannah, what are you talking about? We can't have the windows open. Yeah, yeah, totally not talking either. But the days are still longer and the energy is just different in the summer. So knowing that it's okay to just have a nice lazy day on the couch with company, with some snacks out, a glass of wine, and calling that a night and not feeling like you have to go do and see and go to that festival. And, you know, you did it last year, you said you wanted to do it again this year. There's so much of that. I'm like, I'm not gonna make it. Okay, another favorite for this month is getting comfortable with being a beginner again. I feel like we could all relate to this. There is something in everyone's life where you're like trying to navigate a new season with it, whether that's going back to the gym, whether that's cooking at home or a new job, a new group of friends, trying out a new hobby, hanging out with someone new in particular. Whatever that looks like for you, I feel like summer is such a good time to just get comfortable with trying something new. For me, it's obviously just being a mom. I'm trying to get comfortable being a beginner at something. My life is completely different than what it was a few months ago. And I had no idea how different it was going to be. Like I had no idea how much my body, brain, energy, life, day to day, every second is different than what it looked like before I had a child. And it's the most beautiful thing, but it's I'm new to it. Like I've only been a mom for under three months now. So being a beginner also means giving yourself grace in those moments and knowing you're not gonna be perfect. You're navigating a new normal in a new season. And one day the newness of that season will be over. But also, there's something really freeing about not being like an expert at something yet. I even remember when I was pregnant and I felt the same way. Like I was like, God, I've never been pregnant before. I don't know what any of this means. Like I had so many questions about everything. I had to call so many of my mom friends just to look over my registry and be like, is this right? Do I have the right things? Do I have the right monitor? Da-da-da-da-da. And now it's actually funny. One of my friends is pregnant and I'm telling her she needs to come over and have coffee so I can go through her registry and tell her what she really needs and what she doesn't. Cause I feel like an expert in that now, now that I'm in the thick of the newborn stage, right? But my point is it's sort of freeing to not be good at something yet, like to not be an expert in something. There's so many things in our lives that we feel like we need to know so much information about, and it can get overwhelming. So that feeling of like, yeah, I'm new to this and accepting that and sort of embracing it. It sounds cheesy, but it's just a cool thing to do. We spend so much of our time trying to not be a beginner. When it happens to you, it's a little bit of a shock and it's an adjustment. But you know what? It's character development. It makes us better people at the end of the day. Oh my gosh, what are some of my other favorites? This has just turned into a full yap session about my favorite things for the month. I was gonna really go into a whole different topic, but I might just save it because I'm having so much fun doing this. Okay. Another favorite for the end of May going into June is just baking from scratch. I talked about this with you guys, but I have had to give up dairy for the sake of nursing and breastfeeding Andy. And honestly, if I didn't live in the cheese capital of the world, it would probably be so much easier. But I love to snack on cheese all day. I also love ice cream. Like my pregnancy, I think I ate a cheese stick every single day. I love those things. Why are they so good? But I bring all of that up because since I'm on this journey where I can't have dairy, I'm trying not to have any non-organic chocolate for that reason. Like it needs to be dairy-free chocolate, blah, blah, blah. So boring. I've really needed to bake from scratch and get creative with that. Also, it's really nice to not add any crazy ingredients when you're baking from scratch. It just makes you feel better about everything you're eating. I've always loved baking. There's something almost meditative about it. It's just a slow process. And then your house smells so good and it feels so warm and inviting. And I love baking these like big, delicious items in the fall. But I think in the summer, it's a really good time to experiment with like less sugar. And it's not a diet thing. I'm not talking about that in terms of like, cause you want to feel good in summer bikini. Like, no, no, no. We don't care. It's about like noticing how you feel different because you just have better ingredients because you know exactly what you put in it. So I'm putting in regular cane sugar, I would try any alternatives like coconut sugar or just no sugar in general, and just doing like a pure organic maple syrup or an organic honey. So, yeah, not only do you feel better because you know exactly what's going in it, the lack of mystery is nice, but it's also the slowness of it, that meditative feeling of creating something on your own and then enjoying it when you want to, as much as you want to, because again, you know exactly what's in it. There's no guessing game on the ingredients. And speaking of baking from scratch, another thing obsessed with this month, last month, every month that it's available are farmers markets. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, I we have, I think, one of the most beautiful farmers markets I've ever seen in my life. It's my favorite thing to do every Saturday morning is just walk around and get a little goodie and get all of your fruit and vegetables and fixings for the week. But that thing of cooking with only what you found that day, it just makes you get a little bit more creative in the kitchen based on what's actually in season. And it's so fun to do. It's like a fun little challenge to be like, oh, you know, I saw so much mint this past week. I actually didn't get it. I should have gotten it. But just finding creative ways to make something with mint that week, it's something I don't ever do when I'm in a grocery store. Like I only do it at the farmer's market. It's like a weird flex when you're like, oh yeah, I saw this at the market. So I made this. Like I just whipped it up, you know? I don't totally have that ability yet. I have to look up recipes all the time. Or I just ask Chat GBT, like, hey, I have this, this, this, and this. What should I make for dinner? And that sometimes works. But, you know, nobody needs to know that. It's the concept of getting something fresh, getting something in season, getting something locally grown that makes it feel so rewarding. Okay, another favorite thing this month is really just not needing a reason to rest. I think so often we need to label an opportunity of quiet time. Or if you're anything like me, you try to schedule your naps. Now, obviously, I'm unique because I have a newborn. She's napping at a certain schedule, or at least I'm trying to get her to do that. No guarantee. And you're like, okay, I know I can nap at 2 p.m. today for at least 30 minutes. I did that before I had a baby. I would try to plan when I would nap. I think the summer is a time to just not need a reason. Like being tired is enough of a reason. There's that thing of when you have a moment to yourself, you're almost like, what else can I do to be productive today? What else did I need to do on my to-do list today that I could get done? And I found myself doing this because I now have that extra hour at the end of the night when I put Andy to sleep. I'm like, oh my gosh, my evenings are free. What should I do? I take it as an opportunity, like, oh, I can sit on my computer and get a lot done. I have an hour now. Like, I should get some stuff done. But deleting that mental to-do list at a certain hour is also so productive for your mental health, for your physical health, for everything. Like after 8 p.m., it can wait. We should not be on our computers trying to be productive after 8 p.m. Now, I understand if you're in a season of wanting to do that and enjoying that time, because I say that with a grain of salt. Like, there have been many seasons in my life where I like look forward to when everything is quiet and everyone's asleep and I can go do some work on my computer and feel like I'm not gonna get texts or emails or be bothered and like put on my favorite show and get ahead of some work for the week at that time. So I say it all with caution, but just knowing that you don't need an excuse to go rest. You don't need to say, Oh, it's been such a busy week. I can't respond to this text today. Like I have just had the craziest day. Let's normalize not needing an excuse or a reason to just be off, you know, to not answer. I always say this. We were never meant to be so reachable through our phones, through our computers, everything. It's ridiculous if you really think about it. So, like taking time to rest and knowing that you don't ever need to explain why. You don't ever need to tell your friends why you're tired or why you couldn't make it because you were tired. It's just like, no, I needed a minute. I can't go. No questions asked. It's just not performing. If you're tired, you're tired. You're not performing. Like your real friends, your real company should get it. Okay, a few more favorite things, and then I'm gonna get into a little bit of a TV recap because of course I am. Another thing I'm loving for the month of June is wearing baggy clothes. This sounds a bit ridiculous. I always love an all-baggy outfit. It reminds me of living in New York. There's something sort of chic about it, if done right. But in the summer, where you could show a little leg or show a little arm, a little shoulder, and you're still in the baggy clothes, it just always feels cooler. And it's one of my favorite looks to create in the warm seasons. Like, don't ever let anyone tell you that your oversized outfit is not chic. It totally is. It makes you feel a little bit like yourself because you're just comfortable and it's like what you'd be wearing at home, anyways. But I love the oversized linens, the big T's. Even if you're like tucking it in here and there and making it feel like a little bit more elevated. Again, it brings it back to that thing of not performing. You're like not performing comfort. You're like, yeah, I'm comfortable today. There's something about it in the summer with like a pair of flip-flops or even like a little heel, a sneaker. And it's like dressing for how you feel, not how you want to be perceived, right? It's like you're not trying to look cool or look chic, but you know what? You really are. You're not trying to look cool. You're just trying to be comfortable. And why is it that you always feel more put together when you weren't even trying? Like when you just have on a chill, easy outfit that you know you're comfortable in, your confidence is so much better. Like my uniform this summer, I really want it to be my baggy black linen pants. I actually need to buy them in another color because I wear them so much. I wore them my entire pregnancy too. Like they are stretchy, but I want to wear those with just like a baggy cropped tank or a baggy cropped tee. I will live and die in baggy pants. Like I forever think, especially like a low rise one, I'm sorry, don't kill me. I, for some reason, they're the most comfortable. They're the most comfortable. And right now, because I'm nursing, wearing a baggy top makes everything so much easier. Like, A, I'm leaking all the time. Truly, it's a very damp time in my life. Like my boobs are always leaking. So if I'm wearing something baggy, it makes it easier because you can't tell that I've been leaking, but I also can, you know, like lift my shirt up really quickly, just like put her underneath it and feel like I'm not exposing myself to the world. The whole put together thing is really exhausting. And I feel like in the summer is where you can flex that. Like in the summer, it doesn't have to be fitted or intentional. Everything breathes easy, you know, like nothing clings. It's just that easy style season where I feel like everyone can lean into it. And at the end of the day, when you're super comfortable, like I said, it just reads confidence. If you are comfortable in your outfit, then like who cares? And I'm truly my most comfortable when I'm wearing baggy everything. Oh, another thing that's my favorite for this summer in general, May, June, July, pretty much forever, actually, but it's always heightened in the summer, is rewearing outfits, rewearing old clothes, especially rewearing your old summer clothes. When I lived in New York City, I felt like I could go sit outside, you know, sit on the street corner. And one of my best friends, Kendra and I, would do this actually. We would sit at a certain coffee shop in the West Village, and we would meet up like halfway between our homes after the gym on Saturdays, and we would sit there and people watch. And we were fascinated with the amount of people who would be wearing the exact same item from the newest collection at Zara. It was like everybody was a clone. Like they would go buy that one shirt that they saw on TikTok that looked so cute and that someone said that they needed to buy. And if you want to go do that, totally, please go do that. I'm not stopping you from doing that. But just don't make it like your whole personality. Because I think a lot of times, and I've fallen for this too, you fall for like, oh. You wanna feel good about yourself and feel really confident. So you go run and buy all of the trendiest items when in reality, like I promise you, you have enough clothes already. You do. They're in your closet. You can get creative, you can bring them out again. I promise nobody will remember them the way that you do. Like you don't have to go and consume and buy all of the hot new items in order to feel hot and new yourself. I feel weirdly passionate about this, not because I'm like overconsumption is ruining the world. Like, sure it is, of course it is. But I mean this purely in terms of your individuality being your power. And so often we just become clones. Like everybody wears the same thing all the time, sometimes. That sentence was annoying. But if we're all buying the brand new stuff that's at Zara, then we're all buying the brand new stuff that's at Zara and we're all gonna be in the same outfit. There is this unspoken pressure, especially on social media, that's like if you wear the same thing twice, it's embarrassing. Or like if you posted a cute picture and you're wearing a certain outfit and then you're wearing that outfit the next week and you also take a picture in that outfit, you're just like, oh my God, I'm in the same outfit. Can anybody tell? I'm here to tell you, no. Nobody can tell. And I want to call out how bizarre it is when we say this out loud. I mean, how you develop your signature look at the end of the day, I know that sounds a little extreme, but how you develop it is by wearing the same thing. You have to find what works for you and commit to it. Like, think about the fact that we like someone's style because they had a thing, not because they like had all these new items. They had a vibe. I always love like Mary Kate and Ashley, right? I'm such a millennial. Oh my God. But like I grew up watching them in every possible way. And then they became these style icons. And if you look at their fashion now, like their street style now, it's very much what I just talked about that I love, like the baggy, oversized New York City street style look. Like flip-flops, baggy stuff, all of that. That's their thing. That's their vibe. If they re-wore the exact same pants every day, I actually wouldn't even know. I wouldn't care because it's their vibe, you know? And I think when we are constantly finding those trends, or like, here are the five things you need from Zara this month. By the way, I don't know why I'm attacking Zara. I love Zara. Like every example I've said, I've used Zara. They also have great effortless stuff that you could rewear all the time. I just mean in terms of for some reason, there's always like Zara unboxings on my TikTok. I don't know if I'm just on that algorithm. I just feel like there's confidence in the fact that you're wearing the same thing over again and not needing the validation of like wearing something new and different to feel like yourself and to feel really cool in it. It's like consider like your uniform. Like you're like, yeah, this is my self-knowledge, you know, like this is how I see myself. I don't know. I'm like now getting tuned to the weeds of it. I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. I'm basically just saying that I think it's cooler to rewear your outfit all the time and to not feel pressure to go buy a bunch of crap just because the internet tells us to. That's really what I meant by going down that rabbit hole. Okay, oh my gosh. Wow, this really became a full episode on me talking about my favorite things, a full yep session. But quickly before we go, let's talk about Summerhouse. Because as I'm sitting here recording, one of my friends just called me and was like, we need to recap the second episode. I sadly have not watched part two of the Summerhouse reunion yet. It is on my to-do list today. I will do it today. That being said, part one, I already have so many thoughts. I can't believe this whole thing has become the sort of pop culture phenomenon that it has become. And I still think it's gonna be so fun to see Sierra blossom from this. They're comparing it to Scandaval, you know, the Toms, the Tom Sandoval. God, I almost say his name wrong now because of the Scandaval of it all. Tom Sandoval and what happened to him with Ariana. Everyone's comparing it to that. Although it's very similar, yes, it's not because these people were already divorced, or so what they say. It's just the shock factor. The shock factor is what's so similar. And while Amanda had the opportunity to be like the Ariana and, you know, become the next big thing, get cast on Love Island, be the host of everything, have a huge glow-up season, she now is in the thick of being Tom Sandoval. And now Sierra is getting all those opportunities, as she should. By the way, she's the most beautiful person to ever come across Bravo. Like the most. So she already should have had all these opportunities. And I'm happy that they're all knocking on her door now. The only thing I didn't love in part one was just Sierra was like coming in a little too hot, I thought, in that reunion. I wanted her to have a bit of a game face, like an alter ego on, to sit there and be like, I know I'm above you. I don't even need to put you down. I just feel like there was a lot of putting Amanda and West down. And again, she has every right to. She's gone through whatever she's gone through. There's just a lot of negativity around the show right now. It's like a little dark. I just think that the classiest move to do when you've been wronged, especially publicly, is to be so composed that your composure becomes a story. You know, like not putting someone down, not trying to get even or like put them in their place. I really wanted Sierra to just like stay cool and answer everything with like this quiet confidence and like almost like a little smile. You know what I mean? Now, obviously, I'm asking her to do something that is not that she doesn't want to do because she has every right to feel like really freaking upset that this happened to her and that her friend is now not even her friend anymore. I can't imagine how it feels to be her. But I guess I don't know, I just expected her to be like a little bit more firm without being like super sharp, if that makes sense. Because the people who wronged her already look like absolute crap. Like they look super messy. Wes looks like he just rolled out of bed. And Amanda is saying you can't help how you feel when it's like, of course you can. Sorry, this was your best friend's guy. Like he should be a plant to you. Like he should be someone that you would never even approach. He shouldn't even be a person in your mind. I just think that the person, at the end of the day, the person who stays composed the most is the person who wins, you know? And everything she said, she made a great point. That entire time she made great points and she called them out in ways that they absolutely deserve. But yeah, it was a it was a crazy part one. I'm a huge fan of Mia. I think she is such a queen. I'm so happy they pulled her. But yeah, I'm gonna watch part two and I will give all my thoughts, feelings, and concerns about it. Sierra looked freaking amazing. Lindsay, I thought, looked so good. I love how she was chiming in with everything, too. She's so like the big sister of the group. She reminds me of Madison LaCroix on Southern Charm. Like they both have the exact same energy. They're just like the big sisters, they have mama vibes, and they just keep everyone in check. Okay, well, I'm so happy Annie's been sleeping this whole time. It's just about time that I wake her up. But thank you guys so much for listening and for tuning into Hey Hannah week after week. I promise I will not let you down another week. I'm doing my best to stay consistent here, but thank you for giving me grace last week. I really appreciate it. I hope everyone enjoys their week ahead and these beautiful summer days that we have ahead of us. It's gonna be a good month, guys. I can feel it. I just know it. All right, I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye for now.