Easter in Pictures

Hello!  Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great Easter weekend.  We did!  It was pretty low key and relaxed, but that's just the way I like it.  I wanted to share some photos we took yesterday in between church and our brunch, because I loved not just my outfit, but Oliver's as well.  My only regret is we didn't get any pictures of Nate because he was more or less behind the camera!

He wasn't crazy about the hat at first, but then seemed willing to keep it on, so even though it was chilly out, we headed outside to take some more pictures.  So, lots of pictures coming, few words.

I love how our outfits ended up coordinated more or less.  My dress is from Target, they had a great BOGO on dresses a couple of weeks ago.  Ollie's entire outfit is Carter's except his hat is from Target as well.

Seriously, he's such a heartbreaker.  Watch out ladies!  
Anyway, we had a great day, we had brunch with my parents, then let Ollie take a nap and Nate built a little bonfire for the two of us.  We went for a walk even though it was chilly and then just grilled some hamburgers for dinner.  I'm beginning to really appreciate these low key, laid back holidays!  
How was your weekend and Easter?

Currently in April

Happy April and Happy Spring!  No April Fools here.  I hate April Fools Day to be perfectly honest! Instead, I'm here with my favorite link up of the month, Currently with Anne of In Residence and Jenna from Dearest Love!  Here are some current happenings in my world!
--Currently I am--
Wearing - So I have worn a variation of this first outfit on the blog before, but I love these jeans and this sweater from Target pretty hardcore.  This was what I wore to a baby shower for my cousin the other day.  If it's a weekend, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be in something like this.

Sweater and jeans - Target

Bag and necklace - Stella and Dot

shoes from friend

Otherwise I'm wearing all the spring colors now that it's spring.  These next two looks are looks I pulled together for the Pinned It Spinned It challenge I follow on Instagram.  I have so much fun remixing the looks that the two gals who put it together choose!

Dress - Mossimo (Target), Jacket - F21 (two birds garage sale)

Leggings, shoes, scarf - Target, 

bracelets - S&D and Ollie's birthstone (gift from my clinic)

Sweater - Mossimo (Target), Skirt - LOFT (thrifted)

Bag - Coach Outlet, Shoes - DSW

Necklace - S&D

Sipping - At this very moment?  My coffee.  In my awesome giant purple travel mug.  If it was happy hour I'd probably be sipping a beer - likely an IPA, so many good fresh hopped ones come out in the spring!  Or I'd love to be sipping a margarita.  Or this new concoction Nate made us one night that has lime juice, gin and mint liquor.  It's rather refreshing.  Is it 5:00 yet?  No? Ok.  Coffee it is.

Wishlisting  - I have a couple of items I'd like to add to my closet for spring and summer.  I still would like to find a pair of white jeans even if I think that's crazy talk because I'm messy and I have a toddler at home.  I also would love a pleated pale pink skirt.  I am trying to decide if the gaucho pants craze is for me.  I tried on two pairs at Target and was not impressed, so I'm thinking maybe not.  But some more pixie pants from Old Navy in spring colors would be fantastic!  I'd also like to replace my boyfriend jeans because the pair I had are just no good anymore.  I'm also looking for a nice emerald green cardigan.  
Writing - Besides this blog post, not much!  Some to do lists I suppose and if writing stuff in Ollie's scrapbook counts I suppose there's that, although I haven't done as much work on that lately either.  
Exploring - Now that it's been nice out we're trying to explore more outdoor things again.  We've been to the Como Zoo in St. Paul a number of times now but I'd really like to take Ollie to the MN Zoo which is a lot bigger.  They have a Farm Baby exhibit during April, so it might be fun to go see that.  I also just read that our Landscape Arboretum is getting a Lego sculpture exhibit in May - we saw one in St. Louis last summer and it was awesome, so we will definitely be going to check this one out too!
And that's about it for now! We're definitely keeping busy and enjoying the sunshine and nice weather whenever we can! What are you currently up to? 

Christmas Recap (AKA Picture Overload)

Hello friends!  Did you all have a nice Christmas?  We did, though it ended up much different than we were originally planning.  I thought I'd recap it all today - warning - it's going to be picture overload!

So the best gift of all was waking up on Christmas Eve morning to this smiling face and having him pretty much be back at 100% health wise.  He started finally eating well again on Christmas Eve and we were just so thankful.

Unfortunately, Nate's parents were both down with nasty bugs, so we got a call from them early in the day that they felt it was in our best interest to cancel our annual Christmas Eve dinner and celebration with them so that they could rest and get better and not re-expose Oliver to any germs. So we found ourselves suddenly having no plans on Christmas Eve, but we made the most of it.  We had lunch out at a Mexican restaurant with Ollie after Nate got home from work.  We picked up some fixings to make up a few snacks to nosh on for dinner and invited Nate's sister and her boyfriend over for a drink.  We ended up having a lovely evening with wine, snacks, the Yule Log on TV, a happily sleeping baby and some Cards Against Humanity played.  Not our usual celebration, but honestly, I kind of enjoyed it, it was pretty dang relaxing!

Christmas morning came and of course Santa had come to our house.  Oliver absolutely loves his new play kitchen that we bought him.  We didn't try to wrap it, we set it up after he went to bed and just brought him out to see it first thing on Christmas morning.  He crawled right over and started banging away on it immediately.  He knew it was just for him and he loved it.

After his morning nap we headed to my parents for lunch and to open gifts with them.  Oliver made out like a bandit, he has lots of fun new toys to play with when he goes to Grandma Daycare now! We headed back home after a couple of hours so Ollie could take another nap.  We were supposed to have a celebration with Nate's extended family late in the afternoon, but once again, sickness caused plans to be delayed.  So, we had a nice low key afternoon and evening at home.  Nate made us some pork chops and delicious broccoli for dinner and we kept our normal evening routine of watching a couple of shows and getting to bed at a reasonable time since Nate still had to work on Friday morning.

I was lucky enough to be off of work on Friday and it was so nice to be home with Oliver when neither of us were sick for a change!  We went to Stride Rite to get him his first good pair of shoes, we're hoping this will help encourage him to try walking some more.  After we got home, Nate called and said he was getting off work early and wanted to know if we wanted to meet him for lunch.  So we met up at our favorite restaurant.

The rest of Friday was pretty low key again, we watched movies and chilled at home.  Saturday we decided Ollie was getting a little stir crazy and decided to take him back over to the Children's Museum for a little while.  I was a little hesitant since we just got him over this nasty virus and worried a little about him picking up more germs, but then I realized, we can't keep him in a bubble either.  And he had so much fun, we pretty much hung in the water room this time and he thought it was the best thing ever.

After the museum we stopped for some lunch and then he took a great nap which was good since we had rehearsal in the early evening with our music group and I hadn't lined up a babysitter.  Ollie had a blast crawling all over the church while we set up Nate's drums and sang through a few things.

Sunday morning we had mass while Nate's sister hung at home with Oliver.  After mass I had a chance to meet up with some of the Beer Advent ladies (who also happen to be fellow MN bloggers) at a brewery I hadn't been to before - Urban Growler in St. Paul.  Delicious beer.  We each ordered a flight - I can promise I didn't quite finish it though, usually I have Nate to help me!

Then Sunday afternoon we finally had our Christmas celebration with Nate's extended family.  We had some appetizers and played the White Elephant dice game.  Ollie had fun watching his older cousins play and laughing at Nate's aunt and uncle's dog.
So it was a good and full extended weekend of celebrating.  I was sad that so much of our family was dealing with illness and causing plans to change, but at the same time, it was really a very nice Christmas in the end.
I also wanted to share an outfit today.  I had a gift card to Target so I treated myself to some new goodies over the weekend too.  New boots, sweater and yes, a purse.  Yep.  I have a problem.  But I had a gift card.  And I love that Coach bag I've been carrying but it feels very holiday like, so I was ready for a change.

Sweater - Mossimo (Target), Pants - Old Navy

Boots and Purse - Merona (Target)

Necklace - Lia Sophia 

Whew.  So that brings us to today, back to work, back to normal schedules.  I'm pretty much working every day but New Year's Day this week.  I'll have some year end reflections on the blog this week and maybe some other recaps too.  Stay tuned!  And if you're lucky enough to still be enjoying time off, enjoy it for me!

Style Evolution

I have always had a hard time with the question - How would you define your style?  It's never been an easy answer for me.  I think it's partly because it's kind of always evolving.  I really feel as of late it's really changed and shifted a bit and I think I'm getting closer to actually having a style.  

I am finding myself going towards a bit more of a casual shift in focus.  This isn't to say I don't want to still appear chic, cute and put together, but I am definitely started to shed some of my dressier styles.  I see a couple of reasons for this - first off, obviously, motherhood.  My time is much more limited, so I want to go for things that will be easy.  Also, since Oliver has been much more mobile, I want to wear things that will make playing on the floor with him at lunchtime easier, but still look nice enough for work.

Speaking of work, I have found that a more casual approach to my work looks just make sense for where I am at in my job.  When I started in this field, I was basically a receptionist, I was the first point of contact and therefore, a dressier look was important.  I wore a lot of dress slacks, long skirts, blouses, blazers, etc.  Now I am in a position where I support a facilities team - my maintenance staff wears jeans and work shirts in the field.  My boss is a male and pretty much wears chinos and a sweater every day.  I don't have a problem being the most dressed up person in a room - but I just started feeling more and more like I wanted to be a little more like the team.

So what is my style these days?  I thought I'd highlight a couple of outfits to try and better explain what I think I'm getting at.

Sweater - American Eagle (b. a resale shop), Pants - Old Navy

Boots, scarf, purse - Target

I love these pixie pants from Old Navy - I have two pairs and I wish I had more.  They were great in the summer with flats or sandals and now I've managed to transition them to fall with boots.  They are comfortable, they are still "dressy" enough for work and they go with many different things.  I can make them be pretty casual chic with a sweater, or I can dress them up with a blouse or a blazer.

I've also taken to really loving scarves as an accessory.  I used to resist scarves, I have a hard time with things too tight around my neck (you'll never see me in a turtleneck, ever.) - but have found so many different ways to tie scarves without choking myself that they've really become one of my favorite looks.  I still love jewelry - especially necklaces - but I also find scarves are much more Oliver friendly too.  The picture below is from today and he just wants to chew on the necklace I'm wearing and while it was cheap, I have others he's nearly broken that are not so cheap, so scarves sort of help with that!

Sweater - Stitch Fix, Black shirt - Gap (Clothes Mentor)

Pants - Old Navy, Boots - Target

Necklace - Charming Charlie

This look features my other pixie pants from Old Navy.  I have had this pair since the spring and I'm still not tired of them.  In addition to pixie pants, I am finding colored jeans/pants are probably my new favorite thing ever as well.  Again, they are dressier than jeans, but still casual enough that I don't feel over dressed when wearing them and they're definitely good for chasing after an 11 month old.  I like having a lot of color in my wardrobe, so that's another reason that I am loving colored pants as well.

So I would say these two looks are quickly becoming my "uniform" so to speak.  Fitted pants, boots, sweaters and an accessory and I'm more or less good to go.  Does this mean skirts and dresses are out for me?  No, not at all, but I'm finding myself drawn to more casual looks in that area too.  For example, one of my favorite dresses right now is a jersey knit cranberry colored dress that looks cute with tights, boots and a denim jacket.  The jersey knit material makes it feel more casual and good for everyday.

I've even found my style choices in the purses I carry has changed a great deal this year too.  I used to always go for more of a "hobo" style that slings over the shoulder - but now I'm finding more and more I like something that allows me to be hands free, especially if I'm shopping with my boy.  My favorites are some of my satchel styles I've found at Target lately that have a crossbody strap, like the purse in the top picture.  I also love bags that can be adjusted to be either over the shoulder or crossbody.  This means I'm seriously cleaning out my purse closet and hoping to sell some that I am no longer using - that's huge!

I guess a third reason that my style has kind of changed so much this year relates back to Oliver a little bit again - I never like to make it sound like I'm bragging, because I am really not - but I actually ended up about ten pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight with Oliver after he was born.  I attribute this to the fact that he still nurses a lot - remember yesterday I said he still wakes up at least once at night? I have also found that while I haven't gotten back into running or working out, keeping up with him is quite a workout in itself, not to mention, up until this week, we would go for a long walk just about every evening, twice on weekends sometimes.  So, I almost feel like I'm getting more exercise now than before I was even pregnant.  But this means that much of my old wardrobe from before pregnancy hasn't actually been fitting the greatest.  The area I'm struggling with the greatest on this now is in jeans - you ever find that when you first put your jeans on they can seem a little tight but then loosen as the day goes?  Halfway through the day I'm almost always reaching for a belt with many of my jeans.  I'm still on a quest to find some that I actually like the fit of.  The eternal battle. Anyway, I don't know what's going to happen when he finally weans, but my goal is to keep the weight off so I can keep up with my new wardrobe.

This is getting so wordy, I apologize, if you're still with me, kudos!  I've decided that if someone asks me what my style is now, I'll answer "Working Mom Casual Chic" - because I think that best describes it at this point.  I'm continuing to cull my wardrobe though right now I've kind of put a halt on some of that simply because I have a birthday coming up, but I hope to keep working on this new me so to speak as time moves forward.  

How would you answer the question of "how do you describe your style?"  Have you ever gone through a style evolution?  Do you think I'm way off base in what I see in myself right now?  Feel free to share any thoughts in the comments!

September Style Challenge Recap

So I took on three different style challenges on Instagram this month - Style Me September, Pinned It Spinned It and Patterns.  I didn't hit each one every day, but I had fun with the ones I was able to do.  I had the easiest time with Pinned It Spinned It - probably because it was easy to take the suggested outfit and create one of my own.  At any rate, I had fun playing along and because I don't share my outfits every day here I thought I'd highlight some of my favorites from this month.

I was going to take October off from any of the style challenges but then I saw a few that sounded fun, so because I like the Inspiration, I'm taking on three more again - Fall Style Challenge Still Being Molly, Outstanding October Style with Curvy Girl on the Run and I don't have the calendar from them yet, but I'm doing Jamie and Amy's Pinned It Spinned It again too.  Between the three I will always have some sort of inspiration for what I should wear that day!  It sure does help some mornings, I have to say that much!  Once again, you can follow along on my Instagram which is also on the right side of my blog here.  I may highlight outfits in blog posts every now and then too.  Onward to October!