It's all happening!

Oh man, you guys, I'm so excited.  April is going to be a pretty exciting month around here - no fooling!  First off, I've decided to join in on a Pinterest challenge for the month.  Heather from Style Journey (who is sadly no longer blogging but still posts outfits on Instagram) and some other gals are hosting this challenge and when I saw their calendar, I realized I could totally do it.  Check out #PinnedItSpinnedIt on both Instagram and Pinterest for more information.  I may not hit every day with this, but it will be fun way to try and remix my wardrobe as we march into spring! Here is the calendar (screenshot off my iPhone).

And here is the outfit for day one - very nice neutral outfit with browns and camel tones.  I don't think I could handle heels quite that tall though!

I made a little collage for my Instagram showing the pieces I chose to put this look together.  I actually pulled a shirt out of my giveaway pile - guess this is helping me re-think some of my clothing!

So here you have it - my Anthro pants, vintage black top, fun shoes that are a little more sensible than the ones in the pin and a Stella and Dot necklace.  I like how this turned out.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of this challenge too!  If I don't blog an outfit I hope to still add it to Instagram - so follow me there if you aren't - @BethieTheBoo.

Shirt - two birds vintage via b (a resale shop)

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Shoes - Etienne Aigner, thrifted

Necklace - Stella and Dot 

What else is exciting in April?  I have a couple of fun reviews coming up for the blog, I am trying out a Stitch Fix box for the first time (yeah it's a splurge, we'll see how it goes), Oliver turns 4 months old this week, and spring should be springing soon!  We had a taste of it over the weekend and yesterday - but now we're plunged back into winter.  Nice April Fools joke from Mother Nature.  Oh well.  Anyway, it's going to be a fun month around here, so stay tuned!

True Blue

I think this is my first wear of my beloved Anthro pants since I've had Oliver.  I looked in my archives and it appears the last time I wore them it was June and I could just barely button them at the time.  I'm so happy I can wear them again!  Still one of my best thrifted finds ever!!

Sweater - Mossimo, Target

Cami - Motherhood Maternity

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Scarf - Stella and Dot

Shoes - Mudd, Kohls 

I haven't been shopping for myself in forever.  I keep buying things for Ollie since he's growing like a weed - starting to pop out of even some of his three month clothes and moving into size 2 diapers!  I just haven't bought myself anything and I'm getting the bug.  I think it might be time for a thrift store trip if nothing else!

Hello sunshine!!!

Well once again, I didn't have to report for my Jury Duty.  I found out I won't have to report tomorrow either, so that's a good thing too!  And there is finally SUNSHINE!  Not hazy fake through the high clouds sun.  Real, live, beautiful sun and beautiful blue skies with only a few white puffy clouds.  And it's not blasted hot or anything.  If I could bottle today and keep it for the entire summer, I totally would!

This shirt I thrifted from the regular clothes over at Unique Thrift Store last month.  It hasn't been nice enough to wear it yet, it's sleeveless, but I decided to throw on a cardi with it today and figured it would work great. I love how blousey it is, I know it'll be a fine shirt this summer even if it isn't a maternity top.  And I can't get enough of this color right now - aqua, teal, mint, anything that shade is a total win!

Shirt - thrifted

Cardi - Arizona Jean Co, JCPenney

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Necklace and earrings - Camy Couture via giveaway

Bag - Lulu's

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie, from cousin

And of course I am loving that I can still squeeze into my favorite Anthro pants - and button them!  I'll keep wearing them with a belly band even after I can't button them anymore because they are my favorite pants ever!

Hope you all have wonderful days and that the sun is shining where you are too!

Almost a repeat

So something about this outfit felt really familiar this morning and as I was driving to work I thought "I think I've worn this exact combo before."  I went through my archives and figured out that it wasn't this exact combo. Swap out the pants though and it's almost a repeat!  Oh well, sometimes you just gotta go with what works!

Sweater - Merona, Target

T-shirt - Mossimo, Target

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Shoes - Etienne Aiger, thrifted 

To try and make it a little more unique I decided after the first picture that I would button up the sweater all the way today.  Yep, I'm such a rebel!

I really enjoyed my "Me" day yesterday.  I even took a little break from most social media yesterday too and it was refreshing.  Not saying social media is bad, but sometimes a break is good.  But I am happy to be pretty much plugged back in today so to speak!

And because I haven't shared a kitty picture in a while, I will leave you with a picture of Miss Taylor in a box doing her best "If I fits, I sits" impression.

Blue hues

 I knew as soon as I saw this sweater in the bag of goodies from my cousin that I'd be wearing it with my favorite blue striped Anthro pants at some point.  Today seemed like a perfect day to do so!  It's rather gross outside today, we got more freezing rain overnight.  I know we've been in a drought and we need the moisture, but I can't stand freezing rain!  I would prefer snow.

Sweater - Christopher and Banks (from cousin)

T-shirt - Decree, JCPenney

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Necklace - swap with CC

Boots - Mossimo, Target 

The only good part of this rainy weather is that it is a little warmer outside so at least I didn't need to wear my heavy parka.  That is what is known as optimism here in MN!

Snow and tell

I decided to take my pictures outside in the frigid air this morning to show off our snow here in Minnesota.  I don't know that I want to make it a habit though!  It was darn cold out this morning!!

Teal sweater - thrifted Target stock

White t-shirt - St. John's Bay, JCPenney

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Shoes - Etienne Aigner, thrifted

Necklace - S&D 

Every year, even here in Minnesota, we go through a learning curve of how to drive in winter weather again. And usually it's not that bad, but last year was like Winter Lite, so I have noticed over the last day or so the drivers are acting exceptionally bad.  If we don't get our act together pretty soon, it could be a looooong winter!

It doesn't help that it got so cold after it snowed, there is pure ice on some of the roads and it doesn't look like our plows and ice trucks have done much to fix that issue.  Hopefully it will get better soon, in the meantime I have to pack a lot of patience when I get in the car to drive to work in the morning (and I even have a short commute!)

Complaining aside, it is nice to have a pretty fresh blanket of snow.  As I've been saying, I'm a traditionalist and I love the idea of having a White Christmas this year.  And it can linger a bit after Christmas too, but come January?  Yeah, all bets are off by then!

First world problems

I feel like I have no right to whine given all that's going on over on the East Coast, but I'm going to whine just a little bit anyway.  So I am just going to put that disclaimer out there and apologize now for a very trivial post.

Remember that ModCloth surprise I mentioned I broke part of my shopping ban for?  Well I was super excited towards the end of the day yesterday when I checked tracking status and saw it was out for delivery.  That meant it should be waiting for me when I got home.  And it was!  Cute perfect little box holding a fun surprise.  I opened it right away when I got inside my house and was thrilled to discover a gorgeous looking party dress.  It was not a style I would have picked out for myself normally, but I figured, hey this is part of the fun.  I immediately Instagramed (is that a word?) and Tweeted a picture of it, which you can see in my Instagram feed at the right of the blog here.  I probably should have waited to do so, because then I went to actually put it on.

I couldn't even pull it past my hips.  This curvy girl is just a bit too curvy for the dress.  Sad Bethie.  I had ordered a size based on the sizes that fit me of several other items I have previously purchased from ModCloth, so I just assumed I'd be fine with whatever they sent.  I guess I was wrong.  It's not ModCloth's fault.  And I am not saying I'd never do one of these surprises again, I think I'd order up a size next time and make necessary alterations if it ended up too big.  Lesson learned.

So, one of my good friends who is close to the same size as me but a little differently shaped is going to give it a try next and if it doesn't work for her I just might be sending it off to one of you.  I want someone to enjoy this dress, darn it!

To soften the blow and cheer myself up today I decided to wear my favorite thrifted Anthropologie pants.  They make everything better.  Thanks for reading my petty little rant!  Continued good thoughts to all my friends out East - I hope you are all doing OK today!

Shirt - Decree, JCPenney

Sweater - Old Navy

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Shoes and necklace - thrifted

Earrings - via swap with CC

Inspiration Monday - Can it be the weekend again?

My weekend was epic and wonderful.  I wish it was still the weekend.  I got to see a friend I haven't seen in two years for a impromptu coffee date on Saturday morning while she was in town from New York and it was wonderful catching up.  I had a good golf lesson, I went to a benefit for another friend, then our music group sang at church and went out as a group afterward to a fun Mexican restaurant and had a good ole time.  And on Sunday I did some shopping and got a haircut!  So it was a great weekend.  And now it's Monday.  And it is so a Monday.  But at least it's Inspiration Monday which helps a bit!  The birds picked actress Jenna Dewan (whoever she is) here.

So, first reason it is so a Monday is my pictures were not cooperating with me today.  No matter where I stood in my yard I ended up so washed out.  So I'm going to give you one indoor picture and one outdoor picture.  It's too bad, I ended up really loving this outfit, I dressed it up a bit for work.

See what I mean?  So washed out.  So then I got to work and decided to take one more so you could better see what I did with this outfit.  I chose my Anthro pants instead of jeans to make this more office friendly and I love this new sweater I got yesterday.  Added a colorful necklace and I was good to go.  So, this next picture is darker, but at least you can kind of see more of what I did here!  I wish my iPhone camera had a timer, seriously I'd use it every day if it did!  I know, first world problems right?

There are other "Monday" things going on so far today too, but that is just how it goes some days I guess!  I'll just sit here and dream of my wonderful weekend and I'll get by!

Stay tuned later today for my second ever vlog.  And as always, make sure you visit two birds for more Inspiration Monday fun!

Outfit rundown:

White tank - Cinema Etoile, handed down from cousin

Sweater - F21

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted

Sandals - Merona,Target

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Better late than never

Ok, so when my thermostat said it was below 30 outside this morning I decided, I'm not taking outdoor pictures this morning, even if it is super sunny!  Too cold for me!  

This is totally not what I meant to wear today.  I was going to wear the pants no matter what, and I decided to wear this t-shirt, but I was going to wear a jacket instead of this little sweater (which yes, it's another cousin goodie, told you we weren't quite done with that!).  Then I opened the closet and saw this little sweater and decided I liked it better, so here you go!

I finally hemmed these pants too!  I won't be tripping over them any longer and now you can actually see the shoes I'm wearing!  I still adore these pants, they are hands down probably one of my most favorite items in my closet right now!

Below is Big Pippin, I had a really cute picture that she photo bombed this morning where she was actually climbing up on me and of course, it turned out fuzzy.  So I tried to recreate it and she was having none of that, so this was the result.

Pippin says "leave me alone mom!"

Silly kitty.  Also, I'm totally a day behind because yesterday I spaced on Everybody Everywhere - so I wore my pastels today and will add my link today.  Better late than never right?

Outfit rundown:

T-shirt - Decree, JCPenney

Sweater - Jones New York (from cousin)

Pants - Anthropologie (thrifted)

Shoes - Merona, Target (thrifted)

Necklace - F21

Happy Spring!

We wished winter farewell last night with thunderstorms - so very odd for March, but hey, this year it seems anything goes.  I loved it, I love a good storm as long as there is no serious damage or anything.  And as long as we're having an early spring, I want the rain to green and brighten everything up!  

So you knew I wouldn't let Super Stripes week go by without wearing my favorite striped Anthro pants!  It was so cloudy this morning though I couldn't quite get these pictures light enough for you to see they actually have stripes.  I was looking back through other posts and I have worn these pants so many times already since January 1st.  Hope you're all not sick of seeing them yet because I guarantee I'm not done with them yet!

I have liked wearing these pants with a red top the best so far, I think it really is a nice color contrast.  And no, I still haven't hemmed these pants even though I keep talking about it!

And this last picture is a repost from another day that I used to show off the buttons at that time, but today, it's to prove these pants really are striped, ha ha ha!

Don't forget to check out Megan Mae or Keely's blogs to find the links to other bloggers participating in the Super Stripes Challenge!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - two birds vintage via b. (a resale shop)

Pants - thrifted Anthropologie

Shoes - Merona, Target, thrifted

Necklace - b. (a resale shop)

Earrings - F21

Leap Day Snowstorm

This is what we woke up to here in the Twin Cities this morning.  Lovely icy, snowy mess.  I took these looking out my front door, this is my little CRV all covered up in the first picture here.

And this is looking south towards my neighbor's house.  In all due honesty, this isn't even that impressive of a storm when you think of what our winters here are usually capable of, but this is probably the biggest one we've had this winter, so I had to document it somehow!

I was prepared that this morning would require more attention to cleaning off my car and just getting myself to work and not to taking blog pictures, so instead I'm sharing Monday's work outfit because I didn't get a chance to do so yet and I think it's pretty cute.

Monday was a much nicer day outside, that's for sure!  What a difference a couple of days makes I guess!  On Monday I wore my favorite Anthro pants again, I keep saying I'm going to hem them and I still haven't done so.  I wore nice high heels so at least I wasn't tripping over them.

 I told the Pants Monkey about all the compliments I received on the dress yesterday and his response was "cool!"  Mostly he was just happy that I liked the dress and that it's working out well for me.  I told him he can buy me clothes anytime, to which he responded, "yeah but our anniversary isn't for another three months."  Who says he needs a special occasion?

Happy Leap Day!  Anyone out there actually have a birthday today?  The father of a girl I grew up with had a birthday on Leap Day.  They used to joke that he was younger than he really was since he only got a birthday every four years!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Decree, JCPenney

Pants - Thrifted Anthropologie via Clothes Mentor

Owl necklace - F21

Hidden shoes - Mudd, Kohls

Planning ahead

 I love the auto-schedule feature in Blogger and I rarely use it!  I really should more.  Anyway, this is Monday's work outfit, but I figured I could set it to post on Wednesday when I'm away for Mr. Monkey's grandpa's funeral.  Phew that is a mouthful!

So I have to thank Megan Mae for this suggestion, one of the other times I wore these pants, she suggested wearing them with some red.  After I bought this blouse I figured out the pairing would be nice, and again, would be something I could tuck in so you can see the fun buttons on the pockets of the pants!  I have worn these quite a bit since purchasing them, but I can't help it, they fit nicely and they were such a good deal!  I do think it's time to look into getting them hemmed though, I have on pretty tall shoes and you still can't see them!

In other exciting news, it seems it is just about light enough in the mornings to start taking pictures outside again!  Yay!  Hopefully that means my picture quality will be getting a little bit better very soon!  I think I may start looking into a nicer tripod as well, then I can use the Pants Monkey's much nicer camera a little more easily.  Right now, it's just too heavy for the tiny little tripod that we currently have!  First world blogger problems right?  Sigh.

Outfit rundown:
Blouse - b. (a resale shop)
Pants - Thrifted Anthropologie via Clothes Mentor
Necklace - gift from my in-laws

Nostalgia

 No skirts today - it is brutal cold out today!  This is what the winter of my youth was like.  We had many days that were so cold between actual air temp and wind chill that they wouldn't let us go outside for recess. And I had to walk up hill and down in the cold, snowy......ok, I'm getting carried away now. But yeah, we don't necessarily get as many days like this anymore whether it's global warming or pure luck, so when we do, they are tough to take!  Brr!

I pulled out my heaviest parka for only the second time this year. It's this big down filled coat I bought at the Gap many years ago, and the only time it gets worn is when it's super cold like this, or I have to shovel snow or I'm sitting outside of Target with my friend on a cold November morning waiting for a CD.  It's a serious warm jacket and I'm glad I have it.  It serves it's purpose and has for many years now!

But anyway, before I risk turning this into nothing but a weather blog, let's change the subject.  I read a list this morning a friend posted on Facebook of the Top 25 Foods You'll Never Eat Again - things that have pretty much been discontinued and were nothing more than a passing fad.  A couple of things on the list stood out to me - Crispy M&M's and Surge pop.  I loved Crispy M&M's!  They had this like Rice Krispie type thing on the inside of the chocolate and they were so good.  I used to sneak them into the movies.  I was sad to seem them go.  Surge on the other hand - man I could not stand that stuff.  But it was huge when I was in high school and it was ever present at any of our all night lock-ins because it was basically Coca Cola's answer to Mountain Dew.  And I'm pretty sure I would choke it down to impress the boys or something.  Blech! Anyway, here's the link to the list http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/25-foods-youll-never-eat-again  It's an interesting read that I think most 80's and early 90's kids will appreciate. 

Apparently I'm just in a nostalgic mood today, all this reminiscing!  Although it does make me curious, are there any discontinued food items that you miss?  

Oh right, this is a fashion blog - ha!  Um, my outfit was chosen more or less on it's ability to keep me warm today.  Hope you're all staying warm too if it's cold where you are!

Outfit rundown:

Sweater - Old Navy

T-shirt - Old Navy

Pants - Anthropologie thrifted via Clothes Mentor

Bracelet and Necklace - Bead for Life

Shoes - Mudd, Kohls

Surprise of a deal

 I did a little thrift shopping over the week I was off because that is just what I do.  I went to my favorite little consignment shop Clothes Mentor because they were advertising 50% off winter items.  I ended up not buying anything that was marked down, but their prices are good even without that.

So anyway, I have talked a little about Clothes Mentor before, but if you're not familiar with them, they buy gently used name brand clothing - anything from Old Navy and Gap all the way up to Designer brands like Seven for All Mankind and even Coach bags and things like that.  When I shop there I try not to pay too much attention to the brands, it doesn't matter what they are as long as it fits well and I feel like I'm getting a good deal.  So I found these cute pants and they were a nice price, they fit nicely and I brought them home, never once really paying attention to the tag.

I get them ready to be washed and take the Clothes Mentor tag off and then notice that I ended up getting a really good deal because the original price tag was still on them as well.  And then I looked at the actual tag and got a really fun surprise - these pants are from Anthropologie!  May not seem like a big deal, but let's just say the prices at Anthropologie are not something I can just easily dish out, so the fact that I got these pants with original price tags just makes me beyond excited.

Aren't they cute?  They are so different from other pants in my closet right now.  I love the piping on the legs and the button detail.  I took a close up so you could see more of the detail, seen in picture below.

It was a fun surprise for me!  Now I can pretend that I bought them in the real live store and that I can actually afford things like Anthropologie new.  Ha ha.

In other news, I have a link to my Facebook page at the right now, no pressure, it's just another way to connect, so feel free to "Like" my page on Facebook if you wish.  

Hope you are all having a great week, we're halfway through!

Rundown:

Shirt - Charter Club, Macy's

Pants - Anthropologie, thrifted from Clothes Mentor

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique

Shoes - Mudd via Kohls