Inspiration Monday - Fast Weekend

Happy Monday!  Did anyone else think the weekend went way too fast?  I sure did!  It was a really good one though and it seems the best ones are the ones that always go too quickly.  Anyway, taking the sting off the end of the weekend is a fun inspiration from two birds.  I loved this look from Britt Robertson.

I had a different top in mind when I saw the one she was wearing, but as soon as I put it on today I was like, ew, Frump City, so my favorite polka dot top from ModCloth won the prize of being worn today instead.  I added a light sweater because spring in MN is fickle. It'll be warmer later today for possibly going with bare arms!  I also like that adding this sweater brought in just a little color. While I like the classic feel of a black and white look, I can't help liking a pop of color too!

 Sweater - I Love H81 (thrifted), Top - ModCloth

Pants - Denzien (Target), Necklace - Stella and Dot

Shoes - Anne Klein (from cousin)

So as I said above, it was a good weekend.  We pretty much had our entire weekend free to do whatever we wanted, when we wanted and while those are the best type of weekends, they can leave you almost as exhausted by the end!  We stayed in on Friday because of the rain, but Saturday was gorgeous and aside from Ollie's naptime I think we were pretty much outside the entire day.  And in fact, Nate and I even sat outside during his nap!  The best weekends end with you falling into bed and pretty much passing out from an overdose of fresh air!  I hope you all had a good weekend too!  And be sure to check out two birds over here for more Inspiration Monday looks!

ModCloth Uniquely Yours Challenge

ModCloth approached me to do one of their weekly Uniquely Yours style challenges and I jumped at the opportunity!  The challenge was to style their Coach Tour Dress in Navy Stripes with items that can be found in their online shop on Polyvore.  Here is what I came up with!

ModCloth Uniquely Yours Challenge by bethietheboo featuring a hair band headband

It was super fun to style this dress - I went for a classic, nautical feeling look that I thought would be fun for a dressier 4th of July event.  This would be a fun look for a wedding around the 4th of July or even a boat ride to watch fireworks!  Red accents are so fun to pair with navy and white!  Also - how adorable is this bag with the polka dots and bow?  I figured a little subtle pattern mixing of stripes and polka dots can be a ton of fun, so I also chose the red polka dot headband too, which also helps give this a fun retro feel!  Overall I think this would be a great summer outfit for anything, but I definitely had the 4th of July in mind when I styled it!  What do you think?  Did I do a good job?  Would you wear this look?  You can find this dress and many others (that are all too cute) over at ModCloth!

My Birthday/Christmas wish list

Just wanted to say thanks for letting me be in a somewhat grumpy mood yesterday.  The day did improve as it went on, especially because I chose to do something fun - I made my Birthday/Christmas wish list.  Well my wish list at least as far as clothing is concerned!  I have chosen to participate in a No Shop November along with Heather at Style Journey - which means no clothes or accessory shopping for myself.  I tend to do this at this time every year with my birthday (Nov 25th) and Christmas so close together.  It's a good time of year to do it.  And I have enough maternity items to get me through to the end I think, so no more shopping for me. Plain and simple.  

This doesn't mean it isn't fun though to "window shop" through the magic of the Internet and pick out things that I might enjoy having!  Here is my wish list as of this moment!

This peplum cardigan from Target is adorable.  The peplum would hide my extra belly after baby is born and cardigans are going to be great to throw over a nursing top.  This red and blue stripe is festive for the holidays too!

What does the fox say?  I am obsessed with all things fox.  My poor son already has a ton of fox themed clothing - might as well have mom match with these fun socks from ModCloth right?

I have been loving the embellished sweatshirts I've been seeing all over the place this year.  I know once the baby is here I'm not going to want to take the time to accessorize as much if I am going somewhere, so this would be a good option instead!  And it'll still be cozy because it's a sweatshirt!  The one above here is from Target, but there are some really cute ones at Old Navy too.

Even though I don't shop there as much as I used to, I still love me some LUSH products.  My favorite time of year for LUSH is always the holiday season - this fun hat box is awesome, it has all my favorite bath bombs and bubble bars.  I may not get a lot of relaxing time after baby comes, but this might be nice to have for relaxation before he arrives!

I have been really pairing down my purses but I can't help but love this one from Nine West.  I saw it at DSW a few weeks back, but it's not on their website.  It's available a whole host of other places though. What I think is awesome is the matching wristlet - I could throw that in a diaper bag with my personal items or throw it in the bag if I'm out sans baby.  And the colors match everything!  Brown, black, gray, etc.

How could I not love this scarf from ModCloth with black cats on it??  It looks nice and warm and is a great way to pay homage to my furry loves.  Cause even if I'm having a baby, I am still a crazy cat mama too. Always will be!

Another scarf and another fox item from ModCloth.  This one is more of a fashionable scarf, less for warmth, but I can think of plenty of sweaters in my closet this would go with.  I see scarves working into my new mama wardrobe quite nicely!

I've been ogling these adorable handmade bags from Rouge and Whimsy for quite some time now.  I love this polka dot crossbody fold over and also the polka dot tote bag that she has for sale.  The crossbody seems like a logical choice for after baby - again, I can put most of the stuff in the diaper bag, but a few things for me in this little guy, throw it across my body for hands free access to my little guy and I'd be good to go!

And finally we have this lovely Aztec sweater from H&M.  Again, I'm seeing Aztec print almost everywhere, but I do love H&M quite a bit so I chose this one.  This sweater seems perfect to me - warm, cozy, easy to wear with leggings while I'm still losing baby weight, can again be worn over a nursing tank pretty well. What's not to love?

So there you go!  I've been telling my family to pretty much just do gift cards for me since I don't know quite how my body will be post baby quite yet, but I wouldn't cry if any one of these items showed up as a birthday or Christmas gift for me (PS, hey Pants Monkey?  You reading this? wink wink nudge nudge).

Are you already looking ahead to Christmas?  What's on your wish list this year?

*All stores and websites mentioned are because I enjoy, no compensation is received from these mentions!*

Winter woes

Well it sure may not be all that spring like outside, but I tried to pull some spring colors through anyway!  The winter weather has really got me down, so I figured bright colors were the best way to try to cheer up!

The sun is at least shining today, but it's back to being really quite frigid outside, so it's not like you can really enjoy it.  Although it is helping me wake up a bit more than I would be without it!  And hey, since it's cold I figured I'd get another good use out of this scarf the Pants Monkey gave me for Christmas.

Sweater - Mossimo, Target

T-shirt - Maurices, thrifted

Pants - Athleta, from sis-in-law

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted

Scarf - ModCloth 

I'm such a good wife you guys.  The Pants Monkey had a work happy hour last night to celebrate their 13th year in business and while he was doing that, I managed to shovel the entire driveway without his help!  So then he bought me dinner when he got home.  I know how to work it.  Wait, maybe that doesn't make me such a good wife!  Oh well, I enjoyed a tasty burger and a beer, which definitely helped ease the sore muscles just a bit!  Seriously, if anyone sees any sign of Spring, tell her it's time to pack her bags and head to Minnesota!

Crazy cat lady rides again

Well today I'm putting the "crazy" in "crazy cat lady".  I decided to try pairing my kitty cat sweater with my houndstooth dress.  I like how it turned out!  I was a bit nervous before I put it on, worrying that maybe the patterns would clash too much, but I think it actually works pretty well!.

Sweater - ModCloth

Dress - two birds vintage

Tights and boots - Target 

Got a little blinky in the above picture - guess the flash caught me off guard!  I am just so happy to be able to take outdoor pictures again!  I know I'll lose this morning light for a bit after Daylights Savings time next week, but at least it will be short lived!  It's also become very apparent to me that it's time for a haircut.  That will be happening in the next couple of days, guaranteed.  I love my short hair, but it sure gets shaggy quickly once it gets a bit too long.

It was actually starting to snow on me a bit as I took my pictures this morning.  Just nice light flurries though, nothing major thank goodness!

And I will leave you with a picture of my kitties, since I'm getting all cat crazy this morning, can't not include them!  They love these new stacking chairs we got from my in-laws - they climb on them and lay under them and I tell you, they're better than cat furniture!

Giddy

I'm so crazy excited today.  I am enjoying a nice day off, I got to do some shopping and found a few goodies and in a little while, Mr. Monkey will get home and we'll be off to Winterfest!  It's going to be a fun night for us.  I picked out a warm, yet fun outfit for tonight.  I stole this idea both off of Pinterest and also from Heather of H&K Style Journey.  It's cozy and warm since it's frigid outside.  It's also red, for Go Red for the American Heart Association - I might not be at work but I can still participate!

Sweater - Hill Valley Vintage

T-shirt - St. John's Bay, JCPenney

Jeans - Old Navy

Boot socks - American Living, JCPenney

Boots - Target

Scarf - ModCloth

I had some success in my consignment sales this morning - enough to take a little money off of a purchase for myself of course! I also made it to the Goodwill and to Hill Valley Vintage today and will have a small amount of new goodies to share on the blog soon.  Told you I'd break that unintentional shopping ban!

And now I'm going to settle in and watch Ellen while I wait for Mr. Monkey to get home.  I'm just so giddy right now, it's hard to settle down and do anything!  Hope you all have wonderful weekends!

Onward to 2013

And my first post for 2013 is an outfit from...2012. But only by a couple of days! Last Friday I was supposed to meet some friends for coffee.  It ended up snowing in the morning though and snarled traffic quite a bit, so we postponed our plans.  I started out having a pajama day instead but then decided to at least get dressed a little bit before Mr. Monkey got home from work.  And what is just as comfy as pajamas?  Leggings!

I had seen this idea on Pinterest awhile back and decided, what better day to try it out than a day where no one really has to see me?  I did like how it turned out though, so I wouldn't have minded going out in public in the long run!

Sweater - Mossimo, Target

Denim shirt - Talbots, thrifted

Scarf - ModCloth

Leggings - DSW

Boots - Old Navy

This time off has flown by way too quickly.  I have enjoyed every moment of the holidays.  I'm being lazy today, but I think I may slowly start to take down my Christmas decorations.  It's always so depressing, but at the same time, it's nice to have things be kind of back to normal.

At least I have fun things to wear to work, that gives me something to look forward to!  I have so many fun new clothing things I have purposely saved for wearing to work.  It's a motivating tool, what can I say?  And at least it's a short first week back!  Our upcoming weekend is pretty much free and clear of stuff too, so that will be nice.  We'll ease our way into 2013!

Hope you all had fun ringing in the New Year and are able to take it easy today like me!

Lazy winter day

My lazy week continues! Although yesterday wasn't quite as lazy - I got up earlier than I do for work and took my car in for an oil change and to fix a leak it had.  They wanted it there as early as they opened.  So, I lost a day of sleeping in, but at least my car works now and was not too expensive to fix!

My mom was nice and rode to the car place with me and while they were working on it we went to Target and I spent a gift card I had for there.  Not hard to blow through a gift card for Target, let me tell you!  After that I came home and waited for the car guys to call me, I ended up having to call them, but fortunately it was done by the middle of the afternoon. 

I managed to get home just as it started to snow again.  Fortunately this warm scarf from the Pants Monkey kept me nice and toasty all day long!!  I sat under a blanket and watched Ellen.  No complaints from this girl!

In this last picture, I have the purse I found at the Goodwill.  I still can't believe it.  It's not a huge bag, but it fits my things and will be fun to play with this winter. 

. Sweater - Mossimo, Target

Jeans - Levi's, thrifted

Scarf - ModCloth (gift)

Boots - Mossimo, Target

Bag - Coach, thrifted

Today I'm off to meet a couple of my sorority sisters for coffee and then I'm coming home and having an 80s movie marathon.  And then tomorrow Mr. Monkey will be back home with me for four days, I'm excited!  The stay at home wife thing is fun and all, but I like it better when he's here too!

Crazy Cat Lady

Hello friends! I've been making the most of my time away from work and haven't been on the computer much, but I promise I'm here! I'm still trying to get around to all of your blogs!

So you may remember in this post I said I had my eye on a cute sweater from ModCloth for Christmas that had kitties on it.  Well Santa, err, the Pants Monkey, decided I was a good girl this year and decided to give it to me for Christmas!

Sweater - ModCloth

T-shirt - Ninkybink

Jeans - Gap, thrifted

Shoes - Thrifted

I love how comfy it is, it's not overly thick and warm for a sweater, but it works well for layering.  It was very comfy under a jacket when I went on my thrifting adventure yesterday.  Oh and did I ever score - Coach purse with the tags still on it for $14.99, H&M sweater, Nine West coat, Levi jeans.  I may have spent all of the money I got from the Pants Monkey's grandmother, but oh well.  That's sort of what it's for.

And appropriately enough, Pippin decided to photo bomb me while I was doing this pictures.  Let's drive the crazy cat lady thing home!

I love this big girl.  I haven't gotten Taylor on the blog in awhile, I'll have to fix that one of these days!!