Inspiration Monday - Needed

Good morning and happy Monday!  I hope you all had wonderful weekends.  I had a pretty good one, even though we did things, we were able to relax for the first time in I don't even know how long and it felt SO GOOD.  More on that in a moment, first up, Inspiration Monday and today's pick is Taylor Swift.  I can't help but like her, she seems like a positive roll model and I will admit to enjoying some of her music!

So I forgot to wear a hat, not to mention, it was nice and warm yesterday so a hat wasn't even needed!  But anyway, I wore this out to brunch with the Pants Monkey yesterday morning.  We tried a restaurant we hadn't been to before (The Bachelor Farmer for you locals) and it was delicious and wonderful.  And then even though it was a beautiful day, we opted to be quite lazy and rented a movie (The Oranges) and unpacked a bunch of more things in the baby's room before watching another movie (Lars and the Real Girl) with dinner.  I may regret not spending time outside later on, but really, I think we needed a very lazy day like yesterday with no timeline.

The earlier parts of the weekend were good too.  As I mentioned, I had my shower with my girlfriends on Friday night.  It was a blast, I am so blessed to have many friends in my life that I've known from kindergarten through college and a large majority of them made it out, so it was wonderful to see them.  There were plenty of pictures taken thanks to my wonderful hostess who also happens to be a professional photographer, so I'll share some here once I get them.

Sweater - Xhilaration, Target

Jacket - White House, Black Market, consignment

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Boots - I think Target, from mom

Scarf - World Market 

Saturday we did a bit of cleanup around the house and then had a very low key beer night with a couple of friends, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend.  So overall it was just a good, relaxing and enjoyable weekend. I know our days like that are numbered, so we'll enjoy them while we can!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits, head on over to two birds over here.

Pinned it and Did it - Baby shower style

Hey everyone!  So I had some requests for pictures from my baby shower - we didn't get a lot, but I have some of my outfit because I was purposely saving it for today's "Pinned it and Did It" with Heather from Style Journey.  I pinned this outfit a little while back because I recently purchased a very similar sweater dress from a consignment shop.

My outfit is a little different toned, instead of brown, I paired mine with purple leggings and a gray scarf.  It was kind of chilly on Sunday, so it was kind of needed!  The next time I wear this I want to try it with some brown.

I was warm and cozy and had a lot of compliments!  And best of all - this was a very comfy outfit too!  I was also color coordinated with the decorations - totally not on purpose!

Sweater - Motherhood, consignment

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Scarf - World Market

Boots - Target

My outfit photos were courtesy of the Pants Monkey and in the last one above here he was doing something to make me laugh or talk or something. Gotta love him.

Here are a few photos from the actual shower courtesy of my aunt.  My mom has 12 brothers and sisters, so her family is quite large!  This is only a small representation.

This picture makes me laugh because I'm sitting between two aunts who both happened to be named Pat.  I joked that I was a "Patty sandwich."

I still have two more showers coming later on, so hopefully I'll have other pictures to share at some point! Our little man sure will be spoiled!

Head on over to Heather's blog and see other Pinspired outfits!

Inspiration Monday - The story begins

Hello all, welcome to Monday.  Today's Inspiration Monday outfit is Charlize Theron in a pretty laid back look.  It wasn't too hard to come up with something for this one!  But anyway, I'm not going to talk much about my clothes today, I want to share a story instead.

The Pants Monkey and I are coming up on a fairly significant milestone I feel - while we'll have been married seven years this coming May, in March we'll celebrate 15 years together as a couple.  I don't always recognize that anniversary, but this year it just feels significant.  But while we made it official in March, the story really began about 15 years ago this past weekend.  We both attended a birthday party for a mutual friend in high school.  I actually went to that party with a different guy believe it or not, but he and I were pretty much done for at that point anyway.  And there was a pool, so we all went swimming.  Teenage boys being teenage boys decided it would be fun to do things like throw us girls around in the pool.  My Pants Monkey approached me and asked to throw me and I was like sure, since the guy I came with wasn't even swimming.  We ended up talking (and flirting) a lot that night and I knew that somehow he was going to be in my life in the near future.

Shirt - M2M, two birds garage sale

Pants and boots - Mossimo, Target

Scarf - World Market

Earrings - S&D

So anyway, flash forward back to this weekend and on Saturday night, we went to a birthday party for that very same friend.  And I couldn't help but smile when I remembered that other party so many years ago.  I told my friend again as I have in the past, her birthday will always be important to me because if it wasn't for her, I might not have my Pants Monkey now!

Of course there is more to the story of how we got together - but we'll get that next month, you'll just have to stay tuned!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits visit two birds over here.

Dogging it

Today called for a warm sweater and a scarf.  It's getting colder again and they're using the "w" word again too (windchill).  I decided to take this scottie dog sweater for another spin.  It's warm and cozy and who doesn't want to wear scottie dogs to the office?

Sweater - thrifted

Thermal shirt - F21

Pants - Worthington, JCPenney

Scarf - World Market

Earrings - Cookie Lee

Shoes - Rampage, DSW 

So you all know I'm a crazy cat lady, but I do like dogs quite a bit as well.  In fact, Mr. Monkey and I would love to have a dog in addition to our two kitties, but we're just not home enough right now to make that really worthwhile.  The cats are independent enough that if we're not around it's not a big deal, but a dog would be unhappy.  Especially because we'd love a golden retriever and they are fairly social.  We have the best yard ever for a dog, so I believe it will happen someday though!

Until that day comes, I'll just keep loving on my kitties and getting my dog fix through shirts like this one!
Are you a dog person, a cat person, both or neither?

Dotty

Who else is happy it's Friday?  Raise your hand!  Man.  It has felt like a long week and yet not so long at the same time.  At any rate, I'm just happy Friday is here!!  I'm also happy to have my fun new polka dot pants from Old Navy.  I had a gift card from Christmas and these were way on sale online, so I pretty much paid for the shipping and that was it!

T-shirt - Mossimo, Target

Sweater - Herbergers, old

Scarf - World Market

Jeans - Old Navy

Shoes - Rampage, DSW

Bag - Vintage Coach via Rewind

And of course, the polka dots didn't photograph well, so I took a detailed shot of the pants so you could see how fun they are.  They're subtle, but I like them.

Anyone have weekend plans?  It's going to be getting very cold here, so I'm guessing we'll be doing some hibernating.  I told Mr. Monkey that picking up Chinese and coming home to watch a movie on Saturday after church sounds kind of good to me!  If I get really ambitious I may take some of the stuff I'm hoping to sell to Clothes Mentor over there.  They're having a big sale too.  Oh the temptation.  I could also use a haircut.  It's only been four weeks, but this mop is getting shaggy!

And that's about all I have today.  Man, winter just fries my brain sometimes!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Short weeks are awesome

Well look at that, it's Friday already!  I think all weeks should be three days!  I'm feeling even better today, not quite 100% yet, but leaps and bounds better than before.  I figure a nice relaxing weekend will be all I need to kick this cold to the curb.  And luckily, we have no plans this weekend, so relaxing should be easy to accomplish!  

Since I was feeling better I decided to wear another Christmas gift today.  I actually helped pick this one out when I was shopping with my mom way back before my birthday even.  So I've been kind of excited to finally have it to wear!  Sweater dresses are my new favorite thing ever, I think they are my winter equivalent to a maxi dress - both are as comfy as pajamas!

 Sweater dress - H&M, gift from parents

Leggings - Target

Boots - Old Navy

Scarf - World Market

I still have a couple more Christmas gifts to share next week.  I must say I was spoiled pretty good this year with new things.  Now I think I need to go through my closet though, especially when I hear that my cousin has another few bags of clothes to give me to dig through. Out with old and in with new.  Or something like that.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Leather love

Man alive, I was running so far behind this morning, not only was I stuck with indoor pictures, I had to do them when I got to work.  Yes, I'm lucky enough to have that option on occasion since the boss roles in a good half hour after me, sometimes later when she is visiting her other clinic facilities.  But anyway, these aren't the greatest but they'll just have to do!

Seriously though, there is just something about when it gets to be Fall, I have a harder time getting up and getting moving in the morning.  I think my body is like "you need to start thinking about hibernating, because in another life you were a bear."

So when I went to the thrift sale with Lori a week ago, I had hoped to find vintage Coach because they had advertised it.  But we were there on the last day so it was pretty picked over at that point and all they had was a canvas vintage Dooney bag that wasn't that appealing to me.  And I suppose I should back up and give the background story on this.  The Pants Monkey has started doing some leather working.  He's a man of many hobbies my sweet hubby.  Anyway, he's just finished a Kindle case for himself.  While he has been working on leather I suddenly became obsessed with leather - good quality leather.  I have a vintage black Coach bag that I adore.  I decided that I needed one in brown because brown is good for Fall.

Flash forward back to the picked over sale, after I left there I decided to check a couple of my favorite vintage shops just to see what they had.  Well, I found this guy at Rewind and while it wasn't as cheap as I'd like, I decided to take the plunge.  Because I clearly have a problem.  The first step is admitting it right?  At least my purse addiction isn't harmful to my health!

This is a great little bag though, I'm finding more and more I like bags that are functional but still a little stylish.  I might do a post on my different bags sometime, though that might just lead to someone throwing me in Rehab for Bag-o-holics!  I told the Pants Monkey he could make me a bag if he wanted, then I wouldn't have to buy so many, but he just smiled.  I don't think he's quite that advanced yet.  His Kindle case is pretty sweet though!

Dress - ModCloth

Sweater - Christopher and Banks (from cousin)

Shoes - DSW

Bag - Vintage Coach via Rewind

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Bracelets - World Market, S&D

Improvement

Oh my goodness what a difference a day makes my friends!  I am in a much better mood today.   Last night the Pants Monkey and I ate one of my favorite meals and just zoned out to television for about three hours (no joke) and I got to bed nice and early and just woke up on a better side of the bed today!  And I love my outfit today, so how can I possibly not be in a good mood?

And I have a very exciting blogger lady date to look forward to this evening!  I am finally getting to meet the fantastic Maca from the Spanglish Life.  You may remember she guest posted here while I was on vacation in August.  Anyway, she wasn't able to make it to the MN Blogger meetup and since we've been wanting to meet for ages now I just said, ok, then let's plan a lady date!  So we are meeting up at a place called Cupcake in St. Paul to have cupcakes and cocktails and just be fancy ladies!  Or something.  No matter what, I'm looking forward to it!!

I had to get a close up of my bracelets - two of them you've seen, they're from my Stella and Dot party, but the third one I just picked up last weekend at the newly re-opened World Market.  You guys have no idea how happy I am to have World Market back in my life!  They pulled out of MN about three years ago and I was devastated   We loved shopping there for gifts, stocking stuffers at Christmas time, unique kitchen and dining pieces, etc.  They have everything for such great prices.  So this summer I was at my regular Clothes Mentor which is in the same strip mall that World Market once was - and saw the sign back up on the building and about had a hyper spasm.  They opened up about two weeks ago and I just had to go there this weekend, it's the same place I've always loved, possibly even better than before.  And I bought this awesome little bracelet for only $4.99!

To top everything off, it's another beautiful day outside.  We are suffering a drought, so I know we need rain, but the beautiful sunny days have been so nice and the leaves are getting so pretty outside!  I love this time of year!!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Boutique in Pequot Lakes

Dress as skirt - Ragstock

Necklace - S&D

Bracelets - S&D, World Market

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted

Belt - JCPenney

*Edited to add - I'm trying out Disqus as a commenting system again.  I know some of you really dislike it, but they seem to have made some improvements so I'd like to try it out.  I hope this will make it easier to have conversations.  Please bear with me as we see how this goes!*