Inspiration Monday on a Tuesday

Since I didn't have an idea for an outfit for the Pinned It Spinned It challenge for today, I thought I'd swing back and hit up the Inspiration Monday look for the week from two birds instead!  I saw this cute striped dress from January Jones and knew I had several options in my closet that would work!

I just love black and white stripes.  I realized this weekend I have a few striped items!  Anyway, I pulled together kind of a double stripe thing with a dress and a jacket - and leggings because while it's warming up here in MN, it's chilly in the mornings some days!  It's a good thing I did too, my office was an ice box when I got to work today!  I also am wearing a pair of the shoes I got from my cousin.

Jacket - F21, two birds garage sale

Dress - swap

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Shoes - Michael Kors, from cousin

Necklace - gift from friend 

Seeing January Jones up there reminds that Mad Men is starting up again.  We're a few seasons behind, but have found that Amazon streaming has some of the seasons we need to catch up on, so I think we'll be doing that soon since one of our other shows (Shameless) just finished it's season.  I love Amazon streaming, it really helps with binge watching tv shows and you can stop and pause and restart if you need to which we've done a couple of nights if Ollie wakes up and needs us.  It's worth my Prime membership, I'll say that much!

For other Inspiration Monday looks, visit two birds over here.

Inspiration Monday - Summer returns

Hello everyone!  I am back again!  We had a fantastic weekend away, we couldn't have asked for better weather.  But it is very nice to be home too.  I have never appreciated my own bed more now that I'm pregnant than I ever have before, I know that much!!

I could do without coming back to work, but hey, as always, taking the sting off of that is Inspiration Monday with two birds.  Today's inspiration comes from another famous person I've never heard of - Poppy Delevigne.  Nice laid back look from her though!

I meant to do an outfit for this while I was up north, but totally forgot to pack the right things.  I was going to skip this week, but then decided, I can make this work for work.  So here we have it!

It's going to be hot and muggy later today, so I'll likely lose the sweater, at least when I'm outside.  We have been so spoiled by nice weather, this humid and hot stuff is going to be hard to take.  Summer is definitely not over yet even if the stores and coffee shops serving pumpkin lattes starting today are trying to convince us otherwise!

Tank top - Michael Kors, consignment

Sweater - Style and Co, consignment

Capris - Simply Vera, Kohls

Bag - Lulus

Sunglasses - Fun Sisters Nisswa

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie, from cousin

Necklace - Camy Couture

Bracelets - S&D

Speaking of summer starting to dwindle down, I can't believe how much morning light we've lost in just about a week's time.  I got up early enough to go for a walk this morning and it was so dark I said, nope, going to do a workout DVD instead!  It was also a little cloudy, so outdoor pictures weren't going to work out.  Indoor ones sure are a challenge, but I do my best!

I also wanted to share a close up of my fun new sunglasses I bought up north to replace my favorite pair that I lost quite awhile ago.  And I haven't shown off a Stella and Dot arm party for awhile, so you get one of those today too.

And now I'll be making the rounds and trying to catch up with all of you!  I feel like it's been forever!  What's new in your worlds???

Be sure to head over to two birds over here for more Inspiration Monday looks!

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?

Weather yo-yo

Well we have been on quite the weather yo-yo lately.  From 90 last week to chilly 50's today with drizzle.  That's spring in Minnesota for you I guess!  Today was one of those days that you just didn't want to get out of bed.  It just felt too good, it was cool in the room, the blankets were warm and it was dark.  Why can't it be like that when I have a day off and can really sleep in?  

 Sweater - Mossimo, Target

Shirt - Michael Kors, from Lynne

Pants - No Boundaries, thrifted

Necklace - thrifted

Shoes - Kohls

So this outfit really looks better without the sweater, so I took a picture of that as well, but it's so darn cold that I need the sweater!  We can just pretend I look more like this second photo today.  It will be our little secret!

We are getting closer to our holiday weekend here in the US and I'm looking forward to a three day weekend.  The weather sounds like it might actually be getting nicer for the weekend too, so that would be really quite nice!  We're celebrating our wedding anniversary and we have a family picnic so you know, no rain would be a good thing!

Inspiration Monday - And it snowed

Hello Friends! Happy Monday!  I just had quite a weekend, we had a really big snowstorm here in MN.  They had said they thought we'd get some snow early on last week, but then things shifted and we hit the snow jackpot.  We'll have a White Christmas for sure now, which actually, I'm not going to complain about!

So snow or no snow, it's Inspiration Monday and this week the birds picked Mrs. Justin Timberlake, aka Jessica Biel.  Did you know she's a MN girl?  Apparently she grew up in Northern Minnesota.  Useless trivia.

 So, my outfit here is actually quite a few weeks old, but I had it saved in an "extra outfit pictures" folder and realized it matched the look quite well, which is a good thing because I didn't have a chance to wear something like Jessica's look this weekend or today.  It's not a great photo, the Pants Monkey took it on my iPhone before we went on a date night because I loved the way it looked so much.

Red shirt - Michael Kors, from Lynne

Jacket - Mossimo, Target, old

Jeans - Old Navy

Necklace - thrifted

Boots - Payless

For today, I actually did keep the inspiration look in mind as I selected my outfit, but I wanted to be warm and cozy since after the snow fell the temp seriously dropped.  So I kind of kept her orange shirt in my head, and that's about it.  

T-shirt - Maurices, thrifted

Sweater - Aeropostale, old

Corduroy pants- Old Navy

Boots - Mossimo, Target

Necklaces - jerseymaids via Etsy (gift) and S&D

I had a good day off on Friday, the calm before the storm.  I did some baking with my mom and we did a little Christmas shopping, so I'm off to a good start there!  That makes me super happy.  How are you doing with your Christmas shopping?

For more Inspiration Monday looks, head on over to two birds.  And to all my MN friends, be careful out there, roads still aren't super great!

For the love of Lynne

Gasp, no Inspiration Monday again.  Love the look the birds picked, but I couldn't quite pull it together while being out of town this weekend.  We had a great, though cold, weekend away!  It's hard to be back at work today, Mr. Monkey was smart and took today off as well, I wasn't quite that smart!  Anyway, what helps today is while I'm not doing Inspiration Monday, I do have something else fun to share!

A little while back, the fabulous Lynne of Practical Paralegalism emailed me and said she had a new with tags Michael Kors shirt that she bought from Ross and couldn't use and wanted to know if I'd like it.  It was exactly my size, so I said, sure!  Then her daughter got sick and all those life things that get in the way sometimes and I was rather busy myself, so I kind of forgot about it.  I got home from work on Thursday and there was a large box sitting in front of my door.  I'm like, ok all my jewelry came, this must be for the Pants Monkey.  I picked it up and saw it was for me and it was from Lynne - and it was heavy.  I'm thinking holy cow!  I went inside and opened it up and it was like Christmas!  Not only did she send me the Michael Kors shirt, she also sent a few other items, including an amazing dress I can't wait to share because it fits me like a glove!

So anyway, I sure hope I'm not embarrassing her too much - but this was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done, I hope to repay the favor soon!  In honor of Lynne and her fantasticness, I named my outfit today "The Lynne".  I am wearing the Michael Kors shirt, some nice dress pants and dressy shoes and I topped it off with my obi belt from Megan Mae, because Miss Lynne is a huge fan of Megan Mae items - you should see how ladyfriend styles them, let me tell you, she's super creative. And this might just be a new purse I may have bought up north this weekend. Cough, really need that shopping ban now, cough.

So anyway, Lynne, I know I've already thanked you via Twitter and your blog, but I had to give you another shout out here, thank you, thank you, you are the best!!  I can't wait to show off the other items that worked out well for me!!

Some more photography challenges this morning.  I remember having these same issues last Fall too.  So, I added this one from indoors as soon as I got to work today, but I didn't have my tripod so it didn't turn out too much better.  Yeah, first world blogger problems!  I just don't want to use a big SLR camera, I really like the portability of my point and shoot!  Might be time for an upgrade though.  We'll see.  Happy Monday! And PS, even though I'm not over there today, go visit the two birds to see all the Inspiration Monday looks!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Michael Kors, from Lynne

Pants - Old Navy (last year)

Shoes - Madden Girl, thrifted

Necklace - S&D

Bracelet - Charming Charlie

Obi belt - Megan Mae Daily