Soak Up the Summer Instagram challenge

Hey everyone!  I'm back after a little three day weekend.  I can't wait to share more about the All Pints North beer festival, I'll be posting more about that tomorrow.  Today I am excited to announce a super fun Instagram challenge for August that I am co-hosting with the lovely Shea of Shea Lennon! Shea had been talking about wanting to do a collaboration with someone and I said I'd be interested. We chatted and decided an Instagram challenge would be lots of fun.  For the month of August we're going to celebrate summer with our Soak Up the Summer Challenge!

We'd love to have any and everyone play along!  We'll be using the hashtag #SoakUpSummer. Follow along with us, I'm still @bethietheboo for now, that's changing soon but I'll be sure to let everyone know!  Shea is on Instagram at @shealennon.  We both enjoy style challenges a great deal and we're so excited to be hosting our own!  

In July I followed the #JulyPinnedItSpinnedIt challenge and a couple of others including #WearWhatWhere and #JulyBeStyled.  I made a collage of a few of my favorite looks below.

Lots and lots of color this month, that's for sure!  I really love using these Instagram challenges to help re-mix my wardrobe and to share outfits of the day.  In addition to my own challenge in August I'll be following along with a Jewelry Instagram challenge too, I'm quite excited about that, I need to be better about using more of my jewelry - I tend to do a lot of repeats lately!

August will be a pretty fun month I think! Stay tuned and I hope to see some posts from some of you on the Soak Up the Summer Instagram challenge!

Thrift Style Thursday - America the Beautiful

Megan of Traverse suggested our Thrift Style Thursday theme this week to be America the Beautiful in honor of the July 4th holiday (or Canadian Pride for our Canada ladies!) so it was pretty much a given to me that my outfit would be red, white and blue and have an Americana feel to it!

I knew right away I'd be wearing this dress I thrifted a few years ago.  It's been a favorite of mine for awhile now, Nate always compliments me when I wear it!  I even managed to wear this one when I was pregnant too, so it's a pretty great dress all around!  I decided to pair it with this fun top my sweet Instagram buddy sent me, I thought it matched pretty well!  And I'm not real "Stars and Stripes" crazy or into a lot of patriotic flag wear for the July 4th holiday, so this type of look is a little more appealing to me.  And then I finished it out with my favorite Stella and Dot bag, because of there was ever a great bag for an Americana themed outfit, this bag would be it!

We keep things pretty low key for the 4th of July, especially when it falls on a weekend like this.  I don't even get a day off sadly, though I may end up taking a half day on Friday.  On the actual holiday I think we'll go disc golf in the morning like we would any other weekend and then after Oliver's nap in the afternoon we'll be going to my parents for a picnic.  I'm doubting Ollie will make it to fireworks again this year, but you never know.

Shirt - Old Navy (From friend), Dress - Unknown (Thrifted)

Sandals - Target, Bag - Stella and Dot (ThredUp) 

And while this outfit is definitely fun and festive, I'm pretty sure on the actual 4th of July I'll be kicking back in denim shorts and a white top or something!  What will you do to celebrate the 4th of July?  And will you be wearing red white and blue?  Don't forget to check out the other Thrift Style Thursday gals at their blogs below and be sure to visit new member Alison's blog too!

June Favorite Looks

If you follow me on Instagram (and if you aren't you should! @BethieTheBoo) you may have noticed that I have done a couple of style challenges this month.  I love following along with these, especially ones that are a little more general, because they help provide me inspiration to help with mixing my closet a little better.  One of the challenges I did was a Dress Week Challenge and the other was a cute one that was themed after Rolling Stones songs - Rad Moves Like Jagger.  I thought I'd share some of my favorites from the month today.

 Dress - Target, Sweater - Camy Couture

Sandals - Target, Necklace - Stella and Dot

 Shirt - Stitch Fix, Pants - Mossimo (Target)

Bag - Stitch Fix, Sandals - Marshalls, Necklace - Lia Sophia

 Shirt and bag - Stitch Fix, Skirt - Gap (thrifted), Necklace - Stella and Dot

Sandals - Target, Bracelet - Nine West (gift from MN Blogger Bash)

Dress and bag - Stitch Fix, Necklace - Stella and Dot, Sandals - Target
Lots of color this month, lots of skirts and dresses, and you can see I am pretty much still in love with this Urban Expressions bag from my April Stitch Fix.  I carry a different bag for a few days here or there and I keep coming back to this one!  I haven't had a crush this hard core on one of my clothing items in quite some time!  Which look is your favorite?

Inspiration Monday - Spring has sprung

I haven't done an Inspiration Monday with two birds in awhile, but liked this look they picked from Cara Delevigne (and who is she? #oldlady) this week.

I've been looking for an excuse to finally wear this boho style fringe vest I bought way back this fall, so I think this finally gave me the excuse to do it!  And ankle pants because Spring has come to Minnesota and I sure hope it's here to stay!  And I'd love to wear my hat all day, but sadly I will have to take it off for work.  The hair growing is going all right, but it's nice to just hide under a hat too!

Shirt - Gap (thrifted on Instagram), Vest - thrifted (b. resale)

Pants - Old Navy, Shoes - from friend

Hat - Target 

I'd love to say more, but it's been a hectic day already with a checkup for Oliver (he's healthy) and catching up at work, so this is all I've got today.  Friday was hectic too with a water heater inspection at our house and a half day of work that day too!  So I'm a little behind on my blogging groove, but should be back to regular programming tomorrow!  In the meantime, be sure to check out two birds for other Inspiration Monday looks!

Thrift Style Thursday - Sweater Weather

It's Thrift Style Thursday and guess what?  This week's theme was chosen by yours truly!  I went with Sweater Weather as the theme for today because, well, I'm from Minnesota and it's winter and it's cold.  When you live here you can justify having a closet full of cozy sweaters!  I certainly have a fair share of them, but I'm sharing only two of them with you today.  It was tough to narrow down, believe me!

This first one I am unsure of the brand on, there is no tag, but I love the color - it's a nice neutral oatmeal color, but what the pictures aren't showing super well is that it's flecked with little bits of color.  I don't remember when I got this sweater, but I know that it's cozy and I love it!

 Sweater - unknown (thrifted), Pants - Old Navy

Blouse - Gap (thrifted on Instagram), Boots - from friend

Necklace - Stella and Dot

This next sweater is a more recent thrifted find.  I was drawn to the color, I liked the mauve shade.  It also has some sparkles flecked in the threads too!  And it's fuzzy and warm.  That's pretty much a requirement!

Sweater - Mossimo (thrifted), T-shirt - Old Navy

Pants - Thrifted, Boots and scarf - Target 

One reason I love thrifting sweaters is, you know that they're pretty much going to have already been washed and worn before, so there's no breaking them in so to speak.  They aren't likely to shrink on you.  They won't be as stiff and itchy as they possibly could be new.  And again, I live somewhere that has winter practically nine months out of the year - that means I need a lot of variety of sweaters and I sure as heck don't want to break the bank buying them!  So, thrifting for the win!

Check out the other Thrift Style Thursday gals and see what kinds of sweaters they pull out at this time of year!  We're also welcoming a couple of new gals this week - so make sure you check them out too - pictures below are clickable!