Thrift Style Thursday - Winter Blues

When Andrea of Little Did You Know chose "Winter Blues" for our Thrift Style Thursday this week I was originally thinking "oh come on, it's the end of March, it's spring!" Um, wait a minute, did I forget I live in Minnesota?  This theme is perfect for this week, we totally got hit with a relapse of winter, so yes, suffering the winter blues just a little bit!  Especially after we had snow twice this week.  Blah.

I had a little trouble coming up with an entirely blue thrifted outfit.  I just don't seem to own a lot of blue clothing at all.  So, some of my items are thrifted, but some are hand me downs which is still kind of thrifty right?

I also went with a skirt even if it was cold and wintery because I just needed a change.  I love my pixie pants and colored jeans, but it's getting old wearing them all the time!  I also added a pop of color to my outfit with a fun new bag.  I have professed my love of the Stella and Dot How Does She Do It Bag that I own in pewter.  Well, I found this fun colorful version on ThredUp for a bit of a steal, so I treated myself - I had credit from having sold a couple of my own bags there, so I kind of just made an exchange I guess!

Blazer - American Eagle (thrifted), Shirt - Ann Taylor (hand me down)

Skirt and tights - Old Navy, Boots - Target

Bag - Stella and Dot (via ThredUp)

So anyway, maybe not my best attempt, but I sure did what I could with a limited blue wardrobe!  I am so ready for pastels and spring colors, I just hope the weather outside starts to cooperate more!
Make sure to check out the other Thrift Style Thursday gals and how they styled their winter blues! And come back tomorrow for an exciting giveaway from the TST team!

Inspiration Monday - Progress

Hey friends!  Happy Monday!  Did you all have a good weekend?  We got a lot done at our house, the baby's room is coming along nicely - we even got the crib set up!  No decorations yet, but we'll get there! And well the rest of the house looks like the spare bedroom threw up all over it, but we have some organized chaos and plans on where we'll be storing a lot of items now.  One step at a time right?

So it's Inspiration Monday and for whatever reason I couldn't get the photo from two birds to load and save on my computer at all, so I don't have the model picture - it's Julianne Hough and well, my outfit is a "if you blink" inspired look anyway.  Check out two birds and you'll see what I mean.  Oh well, I'm pregnant darn it and that's just going to be my excuse today.  I must say, I do like Julianne Hough even if I only just got into Dancing with the Stars this year and she isn't on it anymore.  

Shirt - Ann Taylor, from cousin

Blazer - F21

Pants - Motherhood, consignment

Necklace - Camy Couture

So anyway, I thought I'd share a little bit of what we've got so far for the baby's room - like I said, we still need to decorate, put stuff away more neatly, etc, but you'll get the general idea!

We still have a couple more showers, so I'm hoping to get some of the decor stuff we want and can work on it after that.  But hey, at the very least, yay we have a crib!

Sweet 16

Happy Friday all!  We've successfully made it through another week, hooray!  I have another semi-busy weekend on tap, but nothing like last weekend.  And after this weekend, my July looks lovely.  Really I just need to get past tomorrow.  Then summer can really begin in my book!

Went for a simple t-shirt and jeans today for a casual Friday look.  Dressed it up with one of my favorite Stella and Dot necklaces with brooch and my awesome thrifted Steve Madden heels.  Simple little touches that really add a lot!

Nothing terribly exciting planned for my day though - meeting a couple of blog friends for happy hour and then heading home for dinner with Mr. Monkey.  Speaking of which, we're splitting a CSA share with my in-laws this summer and the first box came last night.  And the Pants Monkey is a pretty darn creative chef and whipped us up a lovely dinner of pork chops (which we already had), radishes, collard greens with kale and a fried egg (we're getting 1/2 cartons of fresh eggs too).  It was delicious!  We're going to be eating really well this summer, I can already tell!

Shirt - Ann Taylor, from cousin

Jeans - Liz Lange, from friend

Necklace and bracelet - Stella and Dot

Bag - 31 Gifts

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted

And here's my weekly bump picture - we're at sweet 16 today!  As I said yesterday, four more weeks until we find out boy or girl and at that point we'll be halfway through.  Crazy!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  Later today I will be posting a Vlog about my newest box from Influenster - kind of excited about it!

Hey you guyyyyys!

It's SPRING!  Finally!  I'm wearing sandals!  Finally!  I believe this is the latest I've ever gone into the year without wearing them, it's crazy!  Anyway, today's post is picture heavy as I celebrate all the wonderful things about spring: floral, sandals, arm parties, light colored bags.

I did wear these pants even through the winter as they seemed to work for year round, but I'm excited to wear them in the spring and summer, they have so many style options!

And I'm weak.  Yes, this is a new bag.  Yes I'm still on a shopping ban.  My sister-in-law's best friend (aka my Stella and Dot enabler) had a S&D open house last weekend to showcase the new spring/summer line and I fell in love with this tote.  I've had a rough month so I decided to treat myself.  It's a bit bigger than what I've been used to carrying, but I just love the color and it's surprisingly lightweight, so I think it's going to be a great spring/summer bag.

 Sweater - Christopher and Banks, from cousin

T-shirt - Ann Taylor, from cousin

Pants - Mossimo, Target

Sandals - Merona, Target

Jewelry and bag - S&D

Clearly I need a pedicure, very, VERY badly, but I'm just so excited to wear sandals anyway!!  Happy feet!

I took a close up of my arm part, it turned out a little blurry.  I'm really excited to wear bracelets again.  I just don't see the point in the winter when long sleeves cover them up!

And of course, I had to give you a close up of the bag.  It's a nice material that wipes clean.  I should have showed you the inside, it's a fun red print.  It has one outside pocket that is perfect for my cell phone.  And it just feels classy.  I'm getting to the time of the year where I'm going to start changing bags more frequently because I often match them to my outfits, I can't help it in the summer for some reason, but I do expect to get a lot of use out of this guy!

Welcome Spring, welcome.  Please stay as long as you like, we're so happy you're here!

Pinspired

It has been awhile since I've put together a "Pin-spired" outfit based on something I see on Pinterest.  Today I decided to wear an outfit I've had in mind for awhile now.  Here is the pin I saw:

And here is my interpretation.  It's not quite warm enough for sandals yet and I also didn't tuck in this shirt because the waistline just isn't quite right for that on these pants, but otherwise I think I duplicated the outfit pretty well.  Wish it was brighter outside this morning!  I should have done these indoors I guess!

And once again I'm wearing two items that belonged to my cousin.  Perhaps I should make that my theme this week!  In fact, almost this entire outfit is made up of hand-me-downs, because the pants came from Megan Bird!  

Jacket - AMX (from cousin)

Shirt - Ann Taylor (From cousin)

Pants - Squeeze (from Megan Bird)

Shoes - Mossimo, thrifted

Scarf - Target 

This week it sounds like spring might finally be making it's way here - every day it's going to be a little bit warmer, heading to 50's by this weekend!  Do you know how wonderful that sounds?  Come on Spring.  Let's do this!

Inspiration Monday - Sort of

Happy Monday!  First full week since before Christmas, this could be rough!  Oh well, normal is good too right?  So today's Inspiration Monday look is from Blake Lively here. 

I think my outfit from last Monday fits the bill better than what I came up with today, but so it goes!  Two of the items today are courtesy once again of my fabulous cousin.  I ran with my mom on Saturday to pick up the bags of clothes she left at my aunt's house - holy cow there was a ton of stuff!  There were FOUR full bags, of which I kept enough to fill one bag.  And believe me, that was still plenty!

So anyway, I guess this is one of those "I followed the inspiration if you squint" kind of outfits.  This sweater still had the tags on!  Man I love hand me downs!!

That was pretty much the most exciting part of my weekend.  I tried to kind of lay low and not do much so I could kick the cold to the curb and I was more or less successful.  I have lingering sniffles but nothing like it was.  I was bummed to not really go out with the Pants Monkey this weekend, but we got burgers from our favorite place and watched the second Harry Potter movie, so it wasn't a total wash of a weekend!

T-shirt - Ann Taylor (from cousin)

Sweater - Jones New York (from cousin)

Pants - Sonoma, thrifted

Bag - Nine West (gift from in-laws)

Necklace - S&D

I had wanted to start cleaning out my closet this weekend, but decided to wait until I had more energy.  I think that may be a project for next weekend now instead.  There is something about the New Year that makes me want to clean out everything and re-organize, not just my closet, but my entire house.  Fresh start!!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits that probably follow the inspiration a little better, head on over to two birds.

Back to the grind

Well, my extended holiday break has come to an end today.  And lucky me, I'm coming back to work with a head cold!  Hooray!  What kind of person has 10 days off, many of which were relaxing and still gets sick? Apparently me!  Oh well, at least I look cute today!  New sweater and gingham shirt from Christmas!

 Sweater - Merona, Target

Gingham shirt - JCP, JCPenney

Pants - Ann Taylor, thrifted

Necklace - Maurices

Shoes - Madden Girl, thrifted

I'm of course jealous of Mr. Monkey, he took today off.  He deserves a day for himself, but man, I wish I could have stayed at home with him today!  I think today could be a long day.  Fortunately I kept checking in on my emails while I was away from work so I don't have too many surprises to deal with today.  

The good news is, the weekend is only a couple of days today, we're already at Hump Day!  Short weeks for the win!  Onward and upward!

Weather and beer

The heat wave has broken.  Finally.  I stepped outside this morning to go for my walk and was thrilled to be greeted by fresher, cleaner feeling air.  No more humidity.  I know it's not going to last long, summer is far from over, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts!

I wasn't planning to add this little sweater to my outfit today in fact, but it was cool enough that I grabbed it at the last minute!  Also, this skirt was heading for the discard pile, but then I realized, this shirt would look really nice with it.  And then I saw some other things in my closet and I decided ok, maybe I'm not done with it after all!  The reason I was considering sending it on is that it's a frustrating material and can get wrinkled really easily.  That's what irons are for right?

As you all know, or at least I think you all know, Mr. Monkey and myself are beer enthusiasts.  And one of our favorite local breweries released their annual anniversary beer this week and it's super difficult to get your hands on it as it sells out rather quickly.  But my awesome Pants Monkey knew where to go to get the goods and got his hands on four bottles of it!  I'm pretty excited, we're going to crack one open tomorrow night and  then we'll age the rest of them to enjoy later.  Some people have wine cellars, we have a beer cellar!  Not to say we don't love wine too, we just collect beer.  I'll take a picture of our beer cellar sometime to share.  It' fun.

Beyond that, I have not too much to share at the moment!  Life is just status quo and that is ok with me!  Fun post right - weather and beer.  What else do you need?

Outfit rundown:

Gingham top - Salvaged Strawberry/Band of Thrifters

Sweater - Maurices

Skirt - Ann Taylor (thrifted)

Necklace - DIY by me

Bracelet - Stella and Dot

Sandals - Italian Shoe Company

Office chic

I feel very office-y in my outfit today.  I'm sure it's the "pencil" feel of this vintage skirt.  But hey, I work in an office, so I suppose it is appropriate!  I was worried this would feel like too much pink, but actually, I like the way it turned out!  Forgive the look below here, was a wee bit tired this morning.

And per usual, our Minnesota spring has taken a step backwards.  It always seems to happen, we get a taste of that hot weather that will be quite prevalent in the summer to come, but Mother Nature has to first remind us that we are still one of the cold states.  So yeah, it was chilly this morning and from what I've heard it's not getting terribly warm today!  So, a longer sleeve blouse felt like a good choice today and I've only worn this one other time so far since I've had it.  It is one of the shirts from my cousin.  And I'm wearing the shoes from her too!  I didn't set out to combine items from her, but the more she's given me the more that has been happening here and there!

And ooh what's this?  I took one of my Megan Mae Buttonflowers and turned it into a wrist corsage.  I got this ribbon necklace with a couple of charms from Stella and Dot but haven't been crazy about it as a necklace.  So, I decided maybe it would make a fun bracelet!  

I think it's pretty darn cute, even if I did have to have the Pants Monkey help me tie it on.  I need to get more bracelets, I love having an arm party in the summertime!  Added a few to my collection last summer, but could use a few more.  I know what I'm looking for on my next shopping trip I guess!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Ann Taylor (from cousin)

Skirt - two birds vintage (from b.)

Shoes - Anne Klein (from cousin)

Necklace/earrings - old from high school

Bracelet - Stella and Dot ribbon w/Megan Mae Buttonflower

Thrifty

Hello peeps!  First things first, I'm featured over at the fabulous Erin's blog, Babes in Thriftland today as one of her "Other Babes in Thriftland" - check it out here.  Erin's another MN girl who loves thrifting as much as I do.  She's fabulous and I'm super excited to be part of her blog today!  In the spirit of thrifting - I chose an outfit made up almost entirely of thrifted items today!

My jacket, pants, shoes and bag are all thrifted items today!  I said this in my guest post on Erin's blog too - I think at least 50% of my wardrobe is thrifted, it might even be more than that.  If you look down my list of popular post labels on the right hand side of my blog, you'll notice the word "Thrifted" is one of the biggest - so yeah, I like my good deals!

Today is one of those so beautiful you just don't want to come into work kind of days.  I really want to play hooky, you have no idea how much.  I've been dreaming of vacations lately.  I have friends and family who have recently had opportunities to travel to beautiful places and I really want to go somewhere!  Remember yesterday I said if I won the lottery I'd buy a boat and a cabin and such?  Well, I'll also do a ton of traveling. Now I just need to win the lottery.  I suppose it would help if I actually started playing the lottery.  My mom always says "you can't win if you don't play".

I finally got this bag smelling a bit nicer.  I have no problem thrifting bags, this isn't even the first one I've bought second hand - but it's the first time I've really had a hard time with the smell of it once I got it home.  I've aired it out quite a bit and cleaned it some more and now it feels almost like new!

Now all this thrift talking has made me want to go thrift shopping!  I actually haven't done all that much shopping of any kind since I went off my shopping ban.  I suppose the laptop purchase had a little to do with that. I'll have to remedy that situation soon!  Anyway, please do go visit Erin's blog and if you are thrifty like me (and I know many of you are) you should sign up to do one of her Other Babes in Thriftland features too!

Outfit rundown:

Jacket - Mossimo, Target (thrifted)

Pants - Ann Taylor (thrifted)

Bag - Thrifted

Necklace - Charming Charlie (cheap enough to nearly be thrifted)

Shoes - Merona, Target (thrifted)

Sunglasses - Old Navy 

Just call me Betty White

First of all, can I just say that you all are awesome - I really appreciate all the honest feedback on my not so great look yesterday!  This is why I love blogging.  I can be honest and say I think this stinks and we can all agree and laugh about it.  I love it.  I did take one of your suggestions (Tiffany) and tied the shirt at the waist to try and survive the rest of the day.  I do think it fixed the look, which is shown here below.

I'm still sending this shirt on down the line though because my 65 year old boss comes back from lunch yesterday and looked at me and said, "that's a pretty colored shirt, I have one just like it!"  Then she says "in fact, I almost wore it today!"  I politely laughed at that statement but it has pretty much sealed the deal that this shirt is on the way out.  I certainly don't want to be dressing like Betty White or something.  Even though I love Betty White, I think she's the bomb and I often say I want to be her when I grow up (in other words get old) I don't want to be dressing like her - or my boss - right now!

I much prefer today's outfit!  I just wish the weather was better this morning, these photos aren't the greatest.  I should have stuck to indoor photos, but the Pants Monkey was kind of in my way this morning (we may have both been running behind) so I thought, well at least it's not raining.  But it's not very sunny!  Yesterday was perfection, it was sunny and warm and lovely.  I'd love it if that weather came back!

I'm taking a risk on these shoes today.  I triple love them, but the last time I wore them was to Easter Mass and I was standing a lot and my feet were killing me after only a couple of hours.  I will have to see how an entire day will go!  And I guess I'd better not enter the construction zone at work today either!

That's all I got today.  Just promise me you'll say something if I start dressing like Betty White again. Sing it with me now, "Thank you for being a friend.  Travel down the road and back again.  Your heart is true you're a pal and a confidant."

Outfit rundown:

Tank top - Old Navy

Jacket - LOFT (thrifted)

Skirt - Ann Taylor (thrifted)

Shoes - Anne Klein (from cousin)

Necklace and bracelet - Bead for Life