Happy weekend, mamas! It's been a while since my last blog post... How are you? And I mean, really, how are you doing these days? While the work for MLM and caring for my family keeps me busy most days, I feel the constant need to remind myself to take things slowly, to take deep breaths and to allow myself space to feel my emotions, one day at a time. I don't know about you, but I've hit the pandemic wall for the nth time, and I'm tired. These days I'm a little slower, a little less energetic. I feel exhausted because even though the days are long, the weeks are flying by. 

If you’ve been following my journey for a while, you probably know that I wear many hats at MLM; I’m the designer, social media manager, creative director, bookkeeper, customer service rep, brand strategist, product developer, website manager, copy writer, sales and fulfillment manager -- all in one. It's a lot sometimes. Which is why it's super important for me now to be able to prioritize, plan and delegate my work accordingly. The other day I let myself get overwhelmed and ended up telling my 7 year old in a not-so-nice voice,“Honey, for the millionth time, I'm busy!" while unmuted on a zoom call. I first burst into tears and then wrote this piece. 

We talk so much about moms being overworked and burned out due to the demands of work and life in a pandemic, but nothing is actually being done about it. What can we do? I’m honestly asking, what can WE do as women and moms to make our voices heard? Have you seen this NYT Parenting quote by Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan? It’s the perfect metaphor for what motherhood in 2020/21 looks like for a lot of us: 

“People talk about how moms can lift a car off their children, but even though you can do it, it doesn’t mean you didn’t do damage to your body when lifting the car. 2020 was like lifting the car off your kids; 2021 is going to have to be ‘How are those women able to heal?’”

Ok, back to fashion updates. The last couple of months we've been working on a new dress style — it might be my favorite one yet! As always, breastfeeding-friendly, bump-friendly, designed by yours truly and made by women in Chicago. The updated sample I received earlier this week from our pattern maker looks very promising! I also shared some #BTS videos and many of you loved getting a glimpse into the development process. Let me know if you’d like to see more of what and how we do it, or if you think it’s boring.

Our factory in Chicago is working hard on producing the next small batch of our bestselling LBD in black. Slow fashion is slow, but it's even slower during the pandemic. I truly appreciate your patience and I hope to have this beauty back in stock by mid-April. Meanwhile, our LBD in navy has been a bestseller this month! We're down to a handful of dresses in each size. Thank you so much for your support! We would not be here if it wasn’t for you, mamas. 

Sending love your way,

Magda