Unofficial Thrift Style Thursday

Well I'm just a creature of habit.  Even though we're taking Thrift Style Thursday off this month as a group, I still wanted to share a thrifty outfit because A. it's cute and B. as I said, it's kind of habit at this point!

Truth be told this outfit isn't super thrifted - the skirt is actually a sweater dress that I got from Tandem Vintage - though I got a great deal because owner Amanda is a friend and a total sweetheart, but sometimes just because something is vintage doesn't mean it's going to be cheap!  I got lucky on this one!  I thought it would make a great skirt if I pull a sweater over it, and I really like the look, it really modernizes it quite a bit!

Sweater - St. John's Bay (JCPenney), Dress as Skirt - Tandem Vintage (formerly Salvaged Strawberry), Tights and boots - Old Navy, Necklace - Stella and Dot, Bag - Merona (Target) 

I'm dressed for kicking butt and taking names today - I had tried to go to the post office late in the day yesterday to get some blog Secret Santa packages mailed out and the line was out the door.  I should have known better honestly, but I was still a little surprised.  We moved two inches in 10 minutes and I had to go get Ollie, so I just said fine, I'll get there right when they open in the morning and just duck out of work for a few minutes.  So I did just that and I was the second person in line.  In, out, done.  Boom.  Sorry to my Secret Santa giftees that your gifts are coming one day later, but they're on their way now!  And that's pretty much my only story today!

Thrift Style Thursday - Like, totally 90s

Once again I thought I might have some trouble pulling together something for this week's Thrift Style Thursday - our theme is Nineties Nostaglia and while I am a total 90's girl - I didn't think I had much in my closet that would fit the theme.  Oh how wrong I was.  I set to playing around with a few things and realized this was easier than I thought. This was fun to put together!

So this sundress isn't necessary something that screams 90's - but then start adding pieces like the denim vest and we're getting there.  For fun I also added floral sandals, a daisy necklace (I seem to remember daisy things were big then) and a butterfly barrette in my hair ala Sarah McLachlan in her Lillith Fair days. Oh and we can't forget my tied flannel shirt - had to throw in some grunge too.  I always had a flannel tied around my waist in the 90s - even in the summer with my shorts.  I never said I was cool back then!  The whole outfit is finished up with one of my vintage Coach bags (that I'm pretty sure is a 90s era bag - makes me old to call something from my teen days "vintage").  Overall I think I'm pulling a pretty good mid-90's era feel here!

Sundress - thrifted, Vest - Vintage Lee (Mighty Swell pop up sale)

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique, Flannel - Old Navy

Sandals - Merona (Target), 

Bag - Vintage Coach (Tandem Vintage pop up sale)

And funny story - while I was driving Oliver to my parents this morning, the radio station I was listening to was doing their daily "guess the celebrity birthday" game - and it happened to be Melanie B (aka Scary Spice) from the Spice Girls birthday today.  So then naturally they played "If You Wanna Be My Lover" and my transformation to my teen years was complete.  Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Head on over to these other thrifty gals blogs for some other 90's flashbacks!

Spoolish//Sandpaper Kisses//Sincerely Miss J//Confessions of a Refashonista//

Alligator Toe//Buttons&Birdcage//Snippets With Alex//Eclecticity//Being Zhenya//

Erika's Style Diary//Sistas from Cali//Rachel's Lookbook//Muddy Flowers//

The Two Cent Chick//Lipstick And Yarn//Nuttier Than Nutella

Everybody wins

Well, I tell you, I just had an interesting weekend.  What started out as a simple plan to put new tires on my existing car somehow turned into me finishing the weekend with a new to me car instead.  Never a dull moment friends.

My old car was a 2001 CR-V.  We've slowly been doing work on it here and there to keep it going and it's been treating us pretty well.  After getting the new tires put on it on Friday, the tire guys mentioned that we had some broken sway bars that we might want to have replaced so they wouldn't cause problems for the new tires.  My dad was with me since Mr. Monkey was at work and he said he'd go to my mechanic with me and pick me up while they worked on it if I wanted.  I figured, I have the day, why not.  My mechanic said they'd call when they had everything figured out.  Well, when he called it turned out there were far bigger issues going on with the car than we realized.  Major issues that would be cause for safety concerns. The cost to repair these things were suddenly almost as much as the car was even worth at this point.  My parents had a quick pow-wow away from me and then came back into the room and offered to sell us their much nicer newer 2008 CR-V for a very generous amount of money considering it has extreme low mileage and has been very well cared for.  I got the Pants Monkey on the phone and we chatted briefly and agreed we'd be foolish to turn this down.  My parents had been wanting to upgrade to a newer one anyway, so they got themselves a nice new 2014 and we get their 2008.  Somehow everyone wins, but this certainly wasn't how I expected my weekend to turn out!

Tank top - Old Navy

Blazer - Bill Blass, thrifted

Skirt - Tandem Vintage

Necklace - Gumeez teething necklace via Zulilly

Boots - Target 

We will be under a bit of a tighter budget even with my parents giving us a nice deal on buying their car, so it looks like I might be giving up shopping for Lent after all.  I wasn't going to this year!  Fortunately, I had a gift certificate to Tandem Vintage - so I picked up this fun leopard skirt at their sale this weekend.  I had done a little shopping at Target and Old Navy last week before this all went down too, so at least I got myself a handful of pretty new things.  Time to lock up the wallet for a little bit though!  But hey, I have a pretty nice new ride, so I guess things could be worse!

Welcome November

Well look at that, it's November.  November is one of my favorite months of the year, my birthday and the Pants Monkey's birthday are later this month and as I mentioned yesterday, I love Thanksgiving! (PS, thanks all for not disowning me over my less love of Halloween)  This particular November I hope to slow down and enjoy each moment as it's pretty much the last month I'll be entirely child free.  We have a couple more classes coming up, this time not pertaining to the birth but instead are about actually taking care of said child. Cause did you know that after you have a baby it goes home to live with you forever?  Ha.  At any rate, it should be a good month.

I adore this cardigan I got at the last Tandem Vintage sale.  I am a cat person as you all know, but I have a soft spot for dogs and I when I saw that this was a plaid scotty dog, I just had to have it.  And then I decided this cardigan would look super cute with this yellow shirt I scored at the swap.  Instant outfit, you have to love it.  And speaking of the lovely ladies of Tandem Vintage, I'm super happy for them, they have a permanent home!  They'll be housed with a local vintage shop here called Junket two weekends a month every month.  They've worked super hard for this, they totally deserve it! Congrats Amanda and Ashley!!

Cardigan - Tandem Vintage

Shirt - Banana Republic via swap

Jeans - Indigo Blue Maternity via Gordmans

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Boots - Target

And being that it's Friday, it's weekly bump shot time.  34 weeks today.  You can clearly see how pregnant I am when I stand to the side! I'm still so thankful to be pretty much all baby.  I hope it means the after baby weight loss goes a little easier.  I miss my old jeans, lol.

Have a great weekend!

30 but not so flirty

Happy Friday!!  Did this week go by fast for anyone else?  I feel like it did over here!  No complaints about that though.  The weekend is here and even though it's going to be a rainy one, I have fun things to look forward to.  Tomorrow there is a baby/maternity consignment sale I'm going to check out with my mom.  And then Sunday I have my first baby shower with my mom's side of the family.  There's been some tough times in her family as of late so we all need an excuse to have fun and celebrate something exciting for a change!

I have another story to share.  Last night the Pants Monkey and I went to another birthing type class as we're trying to be armed with as much knowledge and tools at our disposal as possible.  It was a fairly small class, maybe seven or so couples.  The beginning of class was kind of some talking and discussing activities with our partners and then we took a break.  This one couple that was sitting in front of us seemed just totally odd.  The dad kept making kind of off the wall remarks and the mom seemed kind of controlling.  Anyway, after the break I kind of stopped paying attention to them because then we got up to try some different positions/relaxation things.  Sometime later we ended up taking another break before doing some more of these activities and I guess at that second break - the couple completely left the class!  I was so zoned on what we were doing I didn't even notice, but the Pants Monkey said that they were definitely having a heated discussion that ended in the mom walking out and the dad kind of saying "I guess she's just not feeling it."  I realized later that there was an empty floor mat and birth ball, but I just didn't think anything of it.  Kudos to the class instructor too, she just kept on going without really calling attention to it at all.  It was just the craziest thing ever!

We're on day number two of dreary, rainy weather.  We have definitely been needing this rain, but man, it makes it hard to want to get up in the morning!  I decided to wear my cute new vintage moccasins from Tandem Vintage today - they're more leathery than regular mocs and these have grips on the bottom, so I figured they'd handle the rain much better than my other suede mocs would!

Shirt - Motherhood via ThredUp

Jeans - Indigo Blue, thrifted

Sweater - Old Navy

Necklace - Bead for Life

Shoes - Vintage Minnetonka Moccasins via Tandem Vintage

And here's our weekly bump shot - 30 weeks today!  Home stretch people!  I'm feeling his weight more and more and find at the end of the day sometimes I need to get my feet up.  But overall I'm blessed to still be feeling relatively good.  I said it last week and I'll say it again, lots to get done in the next 10 or so weeks!  It's my favorite time of year though - Fall into early Winter - I love the upcoming holidays and having a new cuddly baby for Christmas is going to be just the most wonderful thing.  I get chills just thinking of it all!

Weekend stuffs

Good morning friends!  Happy Monday!  Did you all have nice weekends?  Thanks so much to those who left such sweet comments on my post on Friday.  I'm adjusting to my new normal and it's not so bad so far. The worst has been missing my morning orange juice and not splurging on my weekend latte, but that's been about the hardest thing!  The positive things?  Sugar free butterscotch pudding is really tasty and Crystal Light makes a margarita flavored drink mix.  I think I can rock this thing ok!

Lots of baby stuff this weekend, we took our childbirth preparation class.  Nothing makes this entire thing more real than that, let me tell you.  It was pretty awesome though - the Pants Monkey's aunt is a childbirth educator and ended up being the one teaching the class.  You might think that would be awkward for us, but actually it was really nice.  She's unbelievably awesome and makes you feel so at ease.  We learned a lot and had some great conversations about what we want when the time comes.  I'm glad we did it as early as we did so we have plenty of time to plan.

Shirt - Motherhood Maternity, consignment

Pants - Simply Vera, Kohls

Shoes - Rampage, DSW

Necklace - Vintage Pearl, gift from a friend 

Sunday we slept in, then I met up with Lori and we swung into Amanda's fantastic Tandem Vintage sale. Sad panda, she had so many pretty plaid skirts that I'd love to wear this fall, but there is no way the bump will fit at this point!  That's ok though, I found some fun kitty cat earrings and a rather ridiculous cat wall hanging that I'm going to put up with another cat picture a dear friend gave me. Crazy cat lady FTW!  After the sale we went to Target so Lori could help me pick out makeup.  I definitely have some better ideas of what to do with my face now!

I headed home, had a wonderful dinner out on the deck with my Pants Monkey and then settled in to watch the Emmys - what a GIANT disappointment!  I had a mild panic attack because our TV was acting up and we don't have cable so I was worried I wasn't going to be able to watch - yeah, I don't know that it would have been the end of the world to miss this year's show.  It felt like everyone was rushing, struggling to read the teleprompter, the "In Memoriam" spotlights seemed like a good idea but were poorly executed.  And I adore Modern Family, Breaking Bad and Jim Parsons - but at the same time, spread the love a bit on the winners.  I didn't find anyone's dress all that stunning besides maybe Claire Danes - she's always a class act though, that wasn't much of a surprise.  But the show overall was just yuck.  Anyone else watch?  What did you think?

Put a belt on it

I'm excited about how my outfit turned out today.  It's even a bit of a happy accident.  I was going to try to pull together an outfit from one of my Pinterest boards for Heather of Style Journey's Pinned it and Did It Linkup - but nothing I wanted to wear was clean.  So, I was a little bummed and a little lost as to what to wear today.  Then I remembered that I've been wanting to try a belted look.  I've been studying the now defunct Academichic blog thanks to a suggestion from Cara and one of the girls wore a lot of belted looks with her pregnancy - and looked great in all of them.  So, I decided it was time to give it a try.

I LOVE it.  I can't believe how much more put together I feel.  It's a great way to add some definition too, it accents the bump but shows I still have curves as well.  This particular shirt I've been avoiding.  I bought it early on in my pregnancy at Kohls and in the end felt like it fit like a mumu - which of course leads to frumpy feelings.  Adding this belt however totally transformed it.

So expect to see more belted looks from me!  I've been back into kind of a rut feeling with my outfits again, so I'm excited to give some new ideas a try!  And yes....that's a new purse.  My 31 Gifts consultant - who happens to be a very good friend - had a mystery hostess party online and I picked up this Suite Skirt purse for a good deal.  Sadly I didn't win the mystery hostess credits, but I still like this new purse.  It's bigger than their old skirt purse if you're familiar with that concept.  What's neat is you can change the skirt on the outside instead of changing to a whole new purse.  This concept may be useful for me after my baby boy is here - I'll be toting a diaper bag of course, but I may not want to be switching purses all the time, so instead I can just change out the skirt on this one and keep my things separate from his.

Shirt - Kohls

Skirt - Tandem Vintage

Necklace - DIY by me

Sandals - Italian Shoe Maker, from cousin

Bracelets - Target and Bead for Life

Purse - Suite Skirt from 31 Gifts 

Again, I just overall love this outfit today and when you think you look good, you feel good too right?  And it's my Friday, so why wouldn't I want to look and feel good on my Friday?  Tomorrow we're off to the MN State Fair.  I can't wait.  I can already smell the corn dogs and mini donuts!!  If I don't get to posting tomorrow - have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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!

Dot, dot, dot

I tell you - they got it right back in the day.  High waist on a dress?  Perfect for a growing bump.  I am in love with this vintage dress I picked up at the last Tandem Vintage sale.  What's not to love?  Polka dots and aqua?  The fact that this perfectly matches my white leopard print shoes from last fall?  Check, check and check!

The top of this dress is actually really fun and would be great on a warm day - but one, it's not that warm today and two, I need to give it a little love, it's missing one button and while my, ahem, "girls" are getting a bit bigger, they still don't quite fill out the top of this guy.  So I'll give it some alterations and it'll be perfect.  I know I'll get use out of it next summer too!

Dress - Tandem Vintage

Sweater - LEI, thrifted

Necklace, bracelet, earrings - swap with/CC

Shoes - Xhilaration, Target 

And go figure, it was cloudy and looking like rain when I was leaving the house today, so I said, fine, I'll just take my pictures at work today.  As soon as I got in - total sunshine outside.  Yep.  Oh well!

Inspiration Monday - Back to the grind

And just like that my vacation week is over.  Of course it went too fast.  Taking the sting off of being back to work though is the fact that I only work two days this week thanks to my garage sale this coming weekend and that we get exciting news this week in learning the gender of our baby.  

Inspiration Monday with two birds also always takes the sting off of Monday.  Today's look is from Olivia Palmero.  I fell in love with her necklace!

My look is a very loose interpretation - I just can't do all white!  So, I chose a white shirt, a fun new skirt I picked up at the Tandem Vintage sale right before I went out of town and a necklace that I felt matched the interpretation pretty well!

I like the way it looks in person and it's definitely comfy, but these pictures are making me look like frumpy pregnant girl (EDIT - scroll down for a better look).  Oh well.  I gave it my best shot!  It doesn't help that my hair also feels like a hot mess today.  I think it'll be time for another haircut already.  Darn prenatal vitamins.

 Shirt - Gap Maternity, thrifted

Skirt - Tandem Vintage

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Shoes - Clothes Mentor

I do absolutely love the print on this skirt - fishies!  Too much fun.  I think next time I'll pair this with a more colorful top and I think I'll like the overall feel a bit better!  This skirt will work post-pregnancy too.  It has elastic and a drawstring.  You just can't beat it.

Well I'd better hop to it, lots to catch up on!  Make sure you head over here to two birds to see other interpretations for Inspiration Monday that I'm sure are far better than mine!

EDITED to add -  So, based on feedback I already received today, I realized the answer to my frump feelings was simple - TUCK IT IN!  It always makes a huge difference!  See?

WAY happier with this look.  Thanks to Sharon of the Tiny Heart and Heather from Style Journey for that super simple suggestion that I should have tried right away!!

Best dress ever

This is the best dress ever.  I have had it almost two years now and I cannot get enough of it.  I love the colors, I love the style and now, I love that it will be the perfect dress for my growing bump too.  Right now I love that if you look at me straight on, I still look semi-skinny in it!

The other reason I love this dress, like most maxi dresses, is because it seriously feels like wearing pajamas.  I only have one other maxi dress in my closet right now, I may need to change that!  And I still find it hilarious that this is my favorite dress - I resisted the maxi trend for such a long time.  Now I can't get enough.

 Dress - Cliche Minneapolis

Sweater - F21 (last year)

Sandals - Marshalls

Bag - Tandem Vintage pop-up

Necklace - S&D

Bracelets - S&D, Clothes Mentor

It seems the weather is finally settling a bit here too.  And it's glorious - high 70's and sunshine - anyone want to play hooky?  Seriously.  I wish it had been like this last Tuesday when I ended up with a little time off! Oh well, I'll just look longingly out my window!