Grunge

If there was ever a day to wear flannel to the office it would be Friday right?  I'm channeling my inner 90's teen with a little grunge look.  It's pretty chilly outside this morning so it also just seemed like a good day for this cute top.  Yes it's another swap item.  I promise I really wasn't trying to be greedy there!  This one I loved because of the fact that it had this high elastic band right under the chest - which meant the bottom half fit perfectly over the bump.  

So who else is glad it's Friday?  Raise your hand!  I swear these weeks go by faster and faster though. Tonight we're blessed to have no plans though, so it's date night.  We're taking advantage of these while we still can!  I think we're going to one of our favorite restaurants that we usually frequent in the summer because they have an awesome patio, but it sounded kind of good right now, so we'll just eat inside.  They have lots of meat which is good for my GD diet.

Tomorrow we're taking both cats to the vet.  At the same time.  Pray for us.  I kid - but we've never done the two of them together.  And I won't lie, I've been slacking in the pet parent department in the last couple of years so they're a little behind on their shots and what not.  I wanted them to have that all taken care of before the baby comes though, so tomorrow is the day.  We got the first appointment of the day, so we'll get it out of the way early and then bring the kitties home and they'll likely avoid us the rest of the day!

Long sleeve t-shirt - Old Navy

Flannel - Swap

Pants - Indigo Blue Maternity, thrifted

Shoes and necklace - Clothes Mentor

Bag - 31 Gifts 

It's a good thing we're getting some of this stuff done though - 35 weeks today, roughly five weeks left!  I just can't believe in just over a month this little guy will be here.  I've been making lists and checking them twice - ha - and I feel like we're accomplishing a lot.  I truly believe we'll be ready by the time he gets here, just hoping we're not surprised by a too early arrival or anything.  At least after this week's appointment though it sounds like he's pretty comfortable in there for right now, so that's fine with me!  I'd like him to bake just a little bit more!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Where's the boat?

Well, I feel like I'm all ready for a day on a yacht or something!  A bit of a sailor vibe going today, but I love it. I haven't worn this dress since before the 4th of July.   I thought I wouldn't have that many other style options for it, but then saw this new sweater and thought, hey, those would work together.  I now have some other ideas too, which is good because it still fits well and the material is a little heavier so I should be able to wear it awhile into this Fall!

Finally got my haircut.  It's been five weeks instead of four this time and let me tell you, every moment beyond that four weeks I could totally feel.  I am glad I made it this long, but man.  It grows fast these days, so I'm glad I no longer have a mullet going on!

Dress and sweater - Motherhood Maternity, consigned  via Nancy's Nifty Thrifty and Clothes Mentor

Necklace - S&D with MMD buttonflower

Sandals - consigned via Clothes Mentor

And for a short week, it's starting to feel like a long one - anyone else?  Seriously.  Since I have little else witty to share, I'll use my go to filler - cute cat pictures.  Haven't shared any in awhile.  I thought Miss Pippin here looked quite comfy here this morning on the couch.  Took all of my will power not to join her!

And here we have Taylor enjoying the new front window.  She loves sitting in windows, so she loves the fact that we now have two double hung windows in the front of the house instead of pop outs.  She can take in so much more this way!

That's about all my foggy preggo mind can give this morning.  Hope you are all having a good week so far!

Here fishy fishy

Another hot day on tap.  It seemed like a good day for this fishy print skirt again.  It's so lightweight, I knew it would keep me pretty cool and comfortable!  I would have liked to have worn a sundress, but I had an OB appt this morning and they needed to measure my belly, so a skirt was a better choice.  Everything is right on track and good, can't ask for more than that!

So speaking of fish, while we were up north, one day we spent a good chunk of our day on a pontoon boat and almost everyone fished.  There were 9 of us total and we kind of had a fishing contest.  While he didn't maybe catch the biggest ones, my dad certainly got the prize for catching the most fish.  It seemed everytime his pole hit the water he had one on his line.  I got two, one of which was a rock bass so we had to throw it back, but it was pretty impressive to pull out of the water!  Eventually it was just too warm for the fish to be biting so we took ourselves to a restaurant where you can just drive up your boat and dock it.  It was pretty neat!

 Shirt - Old Navy

Skirt - Tandem Vintage

Necklace and sandals - Clothes Mentor

Of course, it seems like our cabin trips are never without some sort of eventfulness.  On our way back on the boat we discovered some mechanisms had shorted out that do things like lift the motor out of the water when you go through a no wake zone.  So, at one point all nine of us piled into the front of the boat to get through the no wake zone to try and not drag the motor on the ground.  Other boaters looked at us like we were crazy - I can only imagine the site of nine people hanging out on the front of a pontoon!  We are pretty crazy though, so I guess it makes sense!

Minty fresh

Look, I broke my blue/white streak today!  Ok, there's still some white, but the rest of the colors I decided to shake it up a bit - mint!  I haven't worn mint for a while now and decided that this cute shirt I got at Clothes Mentor during the sale last weekend needed to be worn.  It's not even a maternity top, but it sure works great as one!

It also still had it's original tags on - so I feel like I got a pretty darn good deal!  I have no complaints, I think I bought four things at that sale and only spent $24.00.  And now I'm challenging myself to get through the rest of the summer on what I've got.  I'll need some things when fall and winter hit when I'm a bit bigger, so I should save up for then!

 Shirt - Michael Kors, consignment

Shrug - LEI, thrifted

Jeans - JCP brand, JCPenney

Sandals - Merona, Target

Bag - Lulu's

Necklace - Camy Couture

Bracelet - Bead for Life

It's such an odd day - feels like Friday, but it's Wednesday.  And of course, since I have to come back on Friday, it's almost like Thursday.  So confusing.  Let's petition the US government to start observing the July 4th holiday on the first Friday of every July.  Sound good?

Inspiration Monday - Flip Flop

Greetings everyone!  Happy Monday!  Hope you all had good weekends.  Mine was pretty decent, a little busy but also some relaxy time which was great!  I never did get my Influenster Vlog posted, but I promise it's coming (cause I know you're all on pins and needles to listen to my babbles again...ha).  Anyway, it's Inspiration Monday and today we have Jamie Chung.

I went for the opposite of Jamie's look - instead of denim on top and white on the bottom, I did white on top and denim on the bottom!  Nothing wrong with a little flip flop!

Shirt - White House, Black Market (From cousin)

Skirt - Old Navy

Sandals - Clothes Mentor

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique

Bag - 31 Gifts

Bracelet - Charming Charlie

Boy this white shirt sure does make my nice pale white skin glow all the more though don't it?  I am your typical Scandinavian Minnesota girl - I don't tan, I burn.  So, I just opt to not tan.  Most of the time it doesn't bother me, but today I am just super translucent I guess!

I did a little bit of shopping with my mom yesterday.  Clothes Mentor was having their annual summer sale so I grabbed a few more maternity pieces for summer.  Mostly I've been worried about not having enough comfortable summer clothes to take on our trip to Northern Minnesota in a couple of weeks.  I am no longer concerned about that!  The deals were really great though, they were offering 55% off of all clearanced items, so you really can't beat that!  I do love though that I still have so many items of my regular clothing that still fit - like everything I'm wearing today.  Hooray for elastic!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits, head on over to two birds over here.

Mod

Hello everyone!  It's another beautiful sunny day!  It makes me happy to see the sun!  The other thing making me happy?  This super fun sort of mod like shirt I bought at the thrift store last week.  It reminds me a little of something out of the 1960's.  If it was just a little bit longer, it more or less would be a mini dress.  But since it's not and this mama doesn't want to look too odd, I added capris too.  

Tonight Mr. Monkey and I are going on a rare weeknight date night.  Our days and weekends have been just full of stuff lately.  Told you this baby wasn't slowing us down.  But it has left us with no time for each other and we need to savor those kinds of moments as much as possible over the next months, so we decided, let's treat ourselves tonight and get some dinner somewhere.  As long as this weather holds, you bet we will be eating outside somewhere!

Shirt - MixIt, thrifted

Capris - Simply Vera, Kohls

Sandals - Clothes Mentor

Necklace - Maurices

Bag - Coach Outlet

I might not be able to indulge in beer any longer when we go out but I'm rediscovering a love of many non-alcoholic drinks that I forgot how much I enjoyed - lemonade for example.  Especially places that make their own and make them with fun flavors.  Also, root beer - if it is good quality like 1919 or something, man, that tastes good on a nice warm day!  And you can never go wrong with an ice cream shake, but I try to limit those just a wee bit!  Trying to keep weight gain to baby only if I can help it!  Any of you have a favorite non-alcoholic drink that isn't sodapop?

Bottom's Up

I'm continuing my participation in the "We Love Target" challenge with Heidi and Whitney today.  The item of the day is "bottoms".  I chose these black capris by Mossimo, I have had them a million years now, but I still  love them.  They're classic, crisp and very appropriate for the office.  They've held up amazingly well over the years which just shows not everything that comes from Target is going to fall apart on you after use and abuse!

So there's this bright round thing in the sky.  It warms the air and makes things lighter.  It answers to the name "Sun" and it's been missing from Minnesota for days now.  If anyone finds it, can you please send it back to us?  Seriously.  It hasn't even rained that much over the last few days, but it's been soooo cloudy and depressing!  We did get a little gentle rain yesterday which was good for the grass seed the Pants Monkey put down this weekend, but still.  I miss the sun!!!

Shirt - Clothes Mentor

Capris - Mossimo, Target

Shoes - Anne Klein, from cousin

Necklace - Stella and Dot

Earrings - Lia Sophia

Bracelet - Charming Charlie 

I did some jewelry close ups here because I actually remembered to today.  This necklace was a steal.  My Stella and Dot consultant was having an open house and was clearing out some of her own inventory and well, this one may have come home with me for next to nothing because I was spending money on some other stuff.  And by next to nothing I may mean nothing.  My S&D gal is the best!

Again, we're linking up with Whitney at Along the Lines of Style today, so feel free to head over there and add your own favorite Target "bottom" or see what other bloggers love!

Inspiration Monday - Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Let us not forget what this day is about - thinking of all those who have served for our country, especially the fallen.

Today's Inspiration Monday with two birds features Julianne Hough in a rather patriotic ensemble.  I only wish it was nice enough outside for an outfit like this!

Instead I'm choosing to be just a little more bundled up.  It's still not terribly warm here and there is no sun.  Sad panda.  Oh well.  I did the best I could and I'm comfy if nothing else, which will be nice for the picnic we're heading to in a little while with the Pants Monkey's family.

Shirt - White House Black Market (from cousin)

Sweater - Mossimo, Target

Jeans, sandals and necklace - Clothes Mentor

It's been a great long weekend, while it has been cool and damp, Mr. Monkey and I did get some good yardwork done.  We also celebrated our wedding anniversary yesterday with dinner out - our anniversary is actually today, but because of the picnic we celebrated a little early.  It'll be tough to head back to work tomorrow.  I still believe all weekends should be three days long!!

In addition to linking up with two birds today, I'm also linking up with Heidi from Literate and Stylish and Whitney from Along the Lines of Style for their "We Love Target" week.  Today's item was "tops".  Be sure to check out the other participants in all of these lovely link ups!

And I wanted to thank Ada from Elegance and Mommyhood for including me in her Week's Best Looks post - she used my peach shirt/mint jeans outfit from last week and I have to say, that was a favorite of mine too!  Head to her post here to see the other blogs she included, many stylish ladies out there!

Hope you are all having a lovely day!

Grown up Strawberry Shortcake

I feel like a grown up version of Strawberry Shortcake in my outfit today.  Something about the colors and the pattern on my sweater or something!  Just give me a hat and some green striped tights. 

Anyway, this skirt is another lovely goodie that the sweet Cambria gave me a couple of months ago.  Hasn't been the right weather to wear it until now.  It won't be 90+ again today but it will still be warm and nice out.

Sweater - Camy Couture

Tank top - Old Navy

Skirt - from Cambria

Necklace - Clothes Mentor 

Shoes - Italian Shoe Maker, from cousin

For lack of much other exciting things today, I'll leave you with two images of Strawberry Shortcake if you didn't know what I was talking about.  The one on the left is the Strawberry Shortcake of MY youth.  The one on the right is the modern version....eh.

Local happenings

Happy Wednesday!  I love when I have a short week.  I think all weeks should be four days, no joke.  Anyway, it seems it really is finally spring! The bush in my yard is finally starting to sprout leaves!  This is the latest I can remember it blooming in the seven years I've lived in my house.  It has been one crazy spring, that is for sure.  

I realized it's been about a month since I've worn my cute Tandem Vintage dress!  It seemed appropriate to pull it out today, they're having another Pop Up Sale this weekend!  They are teaming up with the cutest new donut shop, Glam Doll Donuts - it's 50's themed.  How cute is that?  I have been wanting to check out this donut shop and now you combine it with my favorite vintage group?  Should be an epic time for sure.  If you're local, make sure to stop by, the sale is Saturday and Sunday from 10-5.

Dress - Tandem Vintage

Sweater - Jones New York, from cousin

Necklace/bracelets - S&D

Sandals - Clothes Mentor

Also if you're local, there is a big event over at the Fairgrounds on Saturday too - Craftstravaganza - a very large Indie Craft event that is on it's 8th year.  I have a good friend who will be selling pottery and photography there. Also, if you remember my favorite Jenna Lou bag?  She'll be there too.  I love, love, LOVE supporting handmade/crafty/independent folks like this, it's like Etsy come to life.  I have been trying to cut back on my shopping, but I plan on at least breezing through this event as well as the vintage sale this weekend.  Saturday could be a full day!  And we're already halfway to the weekend!  Yay!

*As always I link because I love, this is not a sponsored post, I just want to support my friends who part of these events by advertising a bit for them - you won't regret shopping either event, that is for sure!*

The hunter

Good day friends.  Today is not my best attempt, I was a bit frazzled getting ready this morning.  Both Mr. Monkey and myself ended up running behind today because Taylor cat was trying to convince us we had mice.

Sweater - Mossimo, Target

T-shirt - Old Navy

Pants - No Boundaries, thrifted

Shoes and necklace - Clothes Mentor 

In the morning, my routine is get up and lightly prod her to go use her litter box as she sometimes has had issues in the past, we find if we just remind her a couple of times a day (kind of like a small child!) she has no issues.  So, I got up today and went to find her and she was in the kitchen staring at the cupboards.  I assumed maybe she had chased a bug or something, but didn't really see anything.  I nudged her downstairs where she reluctantly did her business and then raced back upstairs to sit by this spot.  Staring.  Now I'm a little unnerved.  The last time she acted like that was long before we even had Pippin a few years ago - in our basement office where we discovered we had mice.  So of course, now I'm thinking, oh crap.

I got Mr. Monkey out of bed and told him what was going on and we spent the next few minutes opening all the cupboards, drawers and whatever and let Miss Taylor investigate further.  Pippin had no interest whatsoever.  Taylor got in the cupboard and kind of sniffed in and around the drawers we pulled out.  We didn't find a darn thing.  No clue what that was all about!  It's an odd time of year for mice anyway, they would have had to have come in this Fall and you'd have thought we'd have noticed them by now!

So after all was said and done we were a good 15 minutes behind schedule, which is a big deal in the morning.  Taylor still seemed a bit interested in the kitchen, but much less so after we let her investigate!  Perhaps she saw a ghost instead.  Never a dull moment with pets I tell you.

I see dead people...or mice

Inspiration Monday - Let's rewind

Aww, Monday again?  How did it get here so quickly?  I'm going to be running the weekend through my head on replay over and over because it was spectacular.  Taking the sting off of Monday as usual is Inspiration Monday and today we have Ashley Madekwe - once again I have no idea who she is.  But she's got a cute outfit!

I decided to make it work appropriate, so no jeans, but I kind of went after her peplum look and a little bit of sparkle in my jewelry.  And yep, pictures at the office again.  I think this may be my new fall/winter spot for awhile.  We'll see how it goes.

So I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats wondering where secret date night ended up taking us.  I realized I didn't share about that in my post from yesterday.  Well it may not seem like a big deal to some of you, especially anyone reading who lives in a coastal town that can have fresh, good quality seafood whenever they want, but we went to Red Lobster for dinner.  I had commented to the Pants Monkey a few weeks ago that we hadn't been there in awhile, so he treated us to that for dinner on Friday.  And then after dinner we went on a wild goose chase looking for a specific kind of dark chocolate, because we decided for dessert that dark chocolate and scotch would be lovely.  But everywhere we went the specific one we wanted was sold out because apparently there was a run on Lindt dark chocolate bars or something.  We finally found some at a drugstore of all places.  It was kind of fun running around from store to store though, we were being silly and carefree and I loved it.  Then we went home and watched Red State, written and directed by Kevin Smith whom we are big fans of and he said it would be a horror movie - it's not really horror.  It's definitely creepy and maybe more of a psychological thriller, but horror?  Not as much.  Anyway, overall it was a good date night!

So after we had two days in a row of crazy fun times, we opted to be pretty lazy on our Sunday.  I worked on laundry and blog stuff.  Still, I'd love to just hit repeat and do the weekend all over again.  But alas, we press on!

As with every Monday, make sure you head over to two birds for more Inspiration Monday looks!

Jacket - unknown, via Clothes Mentor

Shirt - St. John's Bay, JCPenney

Pants - Style and Co, Macy's

Shoes - Sonoma, Kohls (old)

Necklace - S&D

Earrings - Butterfly Boutique

Try a little something new

Nothing I'm wearing today is new, but it is another new combination I pulled together for this dress.  I still think this dress is my favorite item of clothing that I own!  And I love finding new ways to wear it.  Someday I'll pull together all the ways I've remixed it so far, maybe after I've had it a full year - I still haven't even had it that long yet!

There was a live action children's show when I was young on the Disney Channel (now mind you this is when the Disney Channel was brand new and you had to pay extra for it - I had generous parents) called Welcome to Pooh Corner.  In it, the characters were larger versions than in the cartoon - they were basically people inside a walk around costume.  Anyway in the show there was a song that Rabbit sang about trying new things.  "Try a little something new, try a little something different, try a little something no one else has done."  So I'm thinking this morning about how I love trying new things with this dress and of all random things that song popped into my head.  I haven't watched that show in close to 20 years at this point - how would I remember that?  My brain is a fun place to be sometimes, let me tell you!

Anyway, besides nostalgia, I have nothing else terribly exciting to share today other than I was able to take some decent outdoor pictures again!  This time of year is just tricky.  And yes, I still have bare legs.  It's going to be 80 degrees today, possibly for the last time, so I wasn't about to cover them up!  The bottom falls out tomorrow though.  I am ok with that though, I'm ready for tights!!  Cover up these pale legs!

Jacket - unknown, purchased at Clothes Mentor

Dress - two birds vintage

Shoes - Rampage, DSW

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique

Bracelets - S&D, Charming Charlie

I'll leave you with the intro to the old Welcome to Pooh Corner so you can see more of what I was talking about.  I tried to find the Try A Little Something New Song, but no luck.  All I can say about this show was, it was 1983. And I'm sorry if it gives you nightmares, looking back it's a little frightening, but it was one of my favorites when I was 4 years old!

Whimsical

Picture heavy post today! There is so much detail in this one shirt, I tried to catch as much of it as I could. I'll try to keep my comments short.

So I went from having NO denim or chambray shirts to now having two.  I bought this one at a vintage shop, it is so cute, it has embroidered flowers, sun, bunnies, etc.  It doesn't quite let me button it closed, but I just had to have it.  So, I wore it with my new cherry tank top from Maurices when we went to go see the movie Moonrise Kingdom on Sunday.

It was such a cute and whimsical movie.  I highly recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Wes Anderson (we totally are).  And this denim shirt just totally feels whimsical to me!

Below here is a shot of the back, sort of a picture of the sunrise.  It is quite a unique shirt!

Now here is a look at the sleeves - flowers and grass.  Awesome colors.  This will go with anything and even if I can't button it, I can throw it over something very easily!

My favorite part is below here - the bunny on the shoulder.  How cute is he?  I love this shirt!

Earlier this same day, I ran to Clothes Mentor with my mom and found another chambray shirt and it was quite a steal - a brand new Talbots shirt with tags still on it, originally $69 and I got it for $18.  It's definitely more of a "dressy" style than this one.  So now I have no reason to whine about my lack of denim tops in my closet!  Now if it would only cool down a bit!

Outfit rundown:

Tank top - Maurices

Denim shirt - Hill Valley Vintage

Capris - Maurices jeans cut off by me

Sandals - Xhiliration, Target

Necklace - Clothes Mentor

Bag - Tommy Hilfiger, Clothes Mentor