Thursday Mishmash

So first a bit of housekeeping - the Thrift Style Thursday gals are taking December off, we decided it's too hectic with the holiday season and that sometimes it's enough to just keep up with blogging at all, let alone a weekly thrifted outfit post.  We'll be back fresh in January with some new ideas and new fun, so make sure to watch for that!  And now on to today's post!

Today's post is a bit of a mishmash of things - a recap of Ollie's birthday yesterday and an outfit of the day.  Cause it's my blog and I'll share a million pictures and multiple subjects if I want to!

Yesterday Nate and I were lucky enough to have the day off so we could spend the entire day as our little family of three for Ollie's first birthday.  We took him to Macy's 8th Floor in Downtown Minneapolis so he could see Santa (when I was growing up, that was THE Santa, so I just really wanted to bring him to this one) and the Day in the Life of an Elf display.  We went in the morning after Ollie's nap and it wasn't too busy which was nice.

He isn't tired in the above picture, the flash made him squinty.  Anyway, here we are in line for Santa. It was really hard to get good pictures, it was kind of dark lighting, so we did the best we could.

A nice lady offered to take a picture of all three of us which was really nice.  We only had to wait about three minutes for our turn with Santa.  I'll have to scan in the picture we got of Ollie with Santa, it turned out pretty good I have to say.  He wasn't afraid of him at all, he sat nice and only cried after the pictures were done because he wanted to get down.

I let him crawl around a little bit while Nate paid for the pictures and then we had to do my favorite part - stop and get a gingerbread cookie.  They used to make them fresh on this floor and you'd smell them the minute you got off the elevator, but now they make them downstairs and bring them up. They're still delicious though!  Ollie enjoyed it too!

We made a quick stop in the gift shop on our way out and picked out a book for Ollie to open up later so he could have one present on his actual birthday.  We'll give him his other presents at the party on Sunday.  While Nate was checking out we got a mommy/Ollie selfie.  I should see how many of those I have from the last year and make a collage of those, ha!

I realized I hadn't gotten many good Ollie/daddy pictures so we stopped before we got on the elevator in front of some pretty trees so I could get one.  Ollie's patience was wearing a bit as he was hungry for lunch, but he humored me for one more picture!

After we left Macy's we took Oliver to a restaurant we enjoy called India Palace.  They do a lunch buffet which is great, we could make a plate of food and share all of it with Ollie and it gave him a chance to try lots of different things.  He pretty much loved it all.

We finished that up and headed home to put him down for his afternoon nap which he thankfully took - fingers crossed the nap strike is over - and during that time I ran and got a quick haircut and then set out to put up and decorate my tree finally and I guess it was a good thing I did...I moved the tree box and saw water on the floor around our water heater.  Guess what else Ollie is now getting as a birthday present?  A new water heater!  Hope you enjoy it kid!  Seriously though, we knew this would be happening soon given the age of the heater we had.  So today I get to work from home for the afternoon while our plumber installs a new one!

We didn't let that little incident put a damper on our day though.  When Ollie got up from his nap we gave him his present.  He wasn't sure what to do with the wrapping paper but he tried!

We gave him a soft sided book about a lion who helps his friends.  It's pretty cute.  And then we pretty much just played with him, ate dinner and put him to bed.  It was a full and wonderful day.  I look forward to his party this weekend too, but I'm glad we took a day for just us.

Today as I said I'm at work for a half day, but I liked the outfit I put together so I wanted to share it since I haven't done an outfit post in a while!

 Sweater - Mossimo (Target), Pants and boots - Old Navy

Cami - Gap, Necklace - Zulily

As usual I'm following along with some Instagram fashion challenges and one of the ones for today was "Gingerbread Neutrals" - I thought that this look kind of fit that theme a little bit!  It's comfy and warm too which is also always nice!  That's all for today, kind of a long post, if you made it this far, well, thanks for reading!

Inspiration Monday - Good times

Hello everyone!  Happy Monday!  Thank you all for the sweet comments on my last post!  As I had said, I don't always recognize our dating anniversary anymore, but 15 years was too big of a milestone to pass up!  We had a great day and I'll get to more of that in a minute, but first up, we have Inspiration Monday!  Today the birds picked Nikki Reed and my age is showing again in that I don't quite know who she is.  Oh well, she's got a pretty chic outfit on at any rate!

Once again, I decided to make the outfit work for work - so here we go.  I chose dressy black pants and two of the shirts my cousin gave me.  Wonder if she ever wore these together?  I also got a haircut over the weekend.  It had only been about three weeks since my last one, but I just felt like it was a shaggy, hot mess honestly.  This time I told the person I wanted a spiky pixie and I think she got the idea!  I'm happy anyway.

And speaking of happy, let's get back to my anniversary day with the Pants Monkey.  We went to a vineyard about an hour north and east of us in Wisconsin and enjoyed a lazy afternoon of tasting wine.  It was really quite good.  We brought several bottles home with us!  In the evening we headed down to a newer restaurant in Minneapolis - it's been there a year already actually, but we hadn't had a chance to until now, called the Butcher and the Boar.  It's definitely a "meat" kind of place, but I was surprised at the large number of seafood dishes they had as well.  We're carnivores though, so of course we had ourselves some meat.  It was delish.  I would love to go back there sometime, we were definitely treating ourselves so it was spendy, but I bet we could go back and maybe not spend quite as much!  After dinner we were pretty much in a food coma and headed home to watch our all time shared favorite movie, Punch Drunk Love.  It was a nice day!

White shirt - White House, Black Market (from cousin)

Sweater - Jones New York (from cousin)

Pants - Style and Co, Macy's

Necklace and bracelets - S&D

Sunglasses - Xhilaration, Target 

The rest of my weekend involved breaking my shopping ban a little early (more to come on this, I'm so excited about my goodies, even if a Facebook friend did comment "um what happened to abstaining?) seeing my blogging besties Lori, Cambria and Amanda, doing a beer tasting and enjoying pizza with some other good friends, and eating my favorite Mexican meal at home to close out the weekend.  All in all, it was a good one!  And it's another short week for this girl, so no complaints there either!

Don't forget to head over to two birds to see the other Inspiration Monday outfits!  And have a fantastic day!

Preppy

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm actually working again today!  It was nice having the last couple of Fridays off, but my boss is gone on vacation now, so someone has to hold down the fort!  Fortunately I can be casual, so I chose a fun preppy layered look today.  It was colder again this morning, so layers were a must.

Sweater - Polo Ralph Lauren, from cousin

Button shirt - Charter Club, Macy's

Jeans - Gap, thrifted

Shoes - Mudd, Kohls

Necklace - S&D 

This button up under a sweater look has always been one of my mom's favorites and she used to buy me clothes back when I was in high school encouraging me to dress like this, but I never liked it back then.  Funny how the times change I guess! I've said it before though, I wasn't horribly stylish in high school - it was mostly flannels and oversized sweatshirts for this girl.  Definitely not a preppy chick back then!  And somehow I still landed my Pants Monkey!

Speaking of the Pants Monkey, this outfit got the stamp of approval from him once again.  We had a nice evening together last night, he ended up home a little late, so we gave up on making dinner and grabbed burgers from our favorite bar instead.  I am looking forward to our nice dinner out on Sunday, but nights like last night are my favorites too!

Have a great weekend!

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

Bragging rights

I'm going to brag for just a moment here - I am learning some mad editing skills with the Pixlr Express online editing service - my lotion totally exploded on me this morning so I had washed it out and there was a giant wet spot on my shirt that was more noticeable than I was hoping.  But I figured out how to edit it out!  I'm pretty dang proud of myself so I just had to share.

I was so uncertain I even took another picture after I got to work just in case I couldn't make that spot less noticeable.  I'll share it anyway.  Overall this isn't a super exciting outfit today, but it's warm and that is good since it's cool and damp today.

Yesterday was one of those kind of trying days, but when I got home it was so beautiful outside, I was able to enjoy a nice walk and that made all the difference in the world.

I'm going to keep it short and sweet today and tell you to go visit Callie's blog Coffee and Cardigans because I have a guest post over there today on fall plaid - going live a little bit later today, but please do check it out.  I was happy to fill in while Callie is enjoying a little time away!

Shirt - thrifted Target stock

Pants - Alfani, Macy's

Shoes - Merona, thrifted

Necklace - S&D

Appreciation

Happy Wednesday friends!  In case I don't say it enough - I just want to say thank you to all of you who stop by, leave comments and show me a little love.  It makes my day and warms my heart more than you can know.  Yesterday I said I felt my outfit was boring and I had so many wonderful comments stating that it couldn't be further from boring. 

I'll let you in on a little secret too - I've been mildly cranky this week.  Works is a little frustrating and then there are those lovely monthly surge in hormones that I can't control - so again, your comments have really helped perk me up and cheer me up.  You guys are just the best.  I love this community so much!  Thank you all!

Today's outfit I'm pretty sure is a repeat of an outfit I wore back in the spring sometime.  I don't mind though, it's comfy and it's a bit classic feeling with the black and white.

And that's about all I got today. My mind is just a bit mush this morning! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Alfani (handed down from cousin)

Pants - Style & Co, Macy's

Shoes - Rampage, DSW

Necklace - S&D

Bracelet - Charming Charlie

Plain Jane

There isn't anything terribly special about today's outfit, it is the last shirt I received from the divine Miss K, and it is fun and funky like the others, but it is also fairly simple.  Overall it's just a simple old black and white type outfit today.  I do like it, but it feels a smidge boring.  Sometimes boring is good though right?

I was also lucky enough to receive a few pairs of shoes from her as well, as you saw on Easter, so I pulled out a pair to wear today and tried to show them off in this second photo.  They are pretty basic black pumps, but you know what?  I didn't have a pair.  *GASP* what kind of woman am I?  Doesn't every girl have one pair of basic black heels?  Anyway, I love these because they are actually comfortable!!  That is always my problem with heels.  They are a brand called Lifestride - I think I've seen them at DSW before.

I stuck a pair of sandals in the car though because right after work today I'm finally getting myself a pedicure!  Fortunately it is going to get a bit warmer today compared to how it has been, so I shouldn't freeze my toes off!  I hope some warmer weather comes back to stay so I can make sandals a part of my wardrobe again!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Alfani, Macy's (From cousin)

Pants - Style and Co, Macy's (old)

Shoes - Lifestride (from cousin)

Necklace - thrifted

Accentuate the positive

So pretty much ever since I bought this dress I've been wanting to accessorize with some red - I thought red accents would be so much fun and based on feedback from some of you - many of you think red accents would be fun too.  I found some red shoes this weekend finally and the rest just fell into place.  Also decided to try using the dress as a skirt today for the fun of it too.

I think it turned out pretty well!  I am loving the versatility of this dress, I can't believe all the different ways I've found to wear it so far!  I even only went for some subtle red accents today (besides the purse I suppose) and I think I could step it up even more if I wanted to!

Speaking of accents, I've been humming a song in my head all morning - called "Accentuate the Positive" - an old time song that I sang in a church show back in the day, basically talking about finding the good in life as much as you can.  And I've been making that my motto so far this week - with all we're dealing with at home right now and what not, it's helpful to try and find some cheerful things.  Example - the wake is tonight for the P. Monkey's grandpa - but at least I have a cute outfit to wear.  Little things like that make a huge difference sometimes!

So yes, I bought shoes this weekend - I know, I said I was locking my wallet but I ran to Clothes Mentor with my mom on Sunday because I just needed a little shopping therapy.  I did good though - these shoes were only $7.00.  And I picked up the above necklace too because I knew in my head I wanted to put together this outfit this week.  My mom was nice and bought me a couple of things too - so all in all it was a nice trip there and I didn't spend too much money.

I have a post already scheduled for tomorrow, so you'll hardly notice I'm gone.  Then back to the grind as usual on Thursday.  Certainly breaks up the week a bit when you have a funeral smack dab in the middle of the week!  See - I find the positives even if it's a tad morbid!

Outfit rundown:

Dress as skirt - two birds vintage

Sweater - Charter Club via Macy's

Tights - Target

Shoes - MIA thrifted via Clothes Mentor

Necklace - thrifted via Clothes Mentor

Earrings - Target

Purse - Nine West (birthday gift from parents)

Long over long

Today's Layer Up challenge is Long over Long.  I had this specific outfit in mind as soon as I read the information for the challenge week.  I have been wanting to pair this sweater with a longer skirt for awhile now.  I like the result, though I still think I might look into have this skirt shortened.  It is super long and I think it would just change up the overall look a bit if I had it shortened just a wee bit.

In hindsight I don't know that my fun new electric blue tights from Target go with this all that well, but I gave it a go anyway!  They are a lot bluer than I was expecting.  Can't blame a girl for trying though!

Also chose to wear my scarf today that I bought in November.  I'm sure you've all seen the 25 ways to wear a scarf video on You Tube - crazy right?  I am so boring though, I stuck with the infinity style today!

In other news, we ordered a Kitchen Aid mixer and it was delivered yesterday!  I am so excited to try making my cupcakes with a better mixer than my hand held one!  The Pants Monkey bought the meat grinding attachment because he wants to attempt making homemade sausage.  I have wanted a mixer for so long, but couldn't justify buying one, not just for the money, but because I didn't feel we had the room in our kitchen.  We still really don't, but we're going to make it work!  And because I'm a nerd, here is a picture of my pretty new toy:

The color is "Persimmon".  I'm looking forward to baking some cupcakes for the Super Bowl on Sunday!

Halfway through the week already and halfway through the Layer Up challenge!  Don't forget to visit Megan or Keely's blogs to get links to the other participants blogs and see how everyone is mixing up their layers!

Outfit rundown:
T-shirt - Decree, JCPenney
Sweater - Decree, JCPenney
Scarf - Target
Skirt - Charter Club, Macy's
Tights - Target
Shoes - Rampage via DSW
Belt - Unknown
Earrings - F21