That's Entertainment

I tell you guys - I am so behind on entertainment and pop culture right now!  Even though we have been lucky enough to get Oliver to bed early enough to watch TV a little bit in the evenings, we've been choosing to watch old shows in favor of our current ones because we're just nerdy like that.  Right now we've been making our way through The West Wing.  I never watched it the first time around.  We just started season two, I am so hooked!  We've also been re-watching Dead Like Me for the third time through I believe. Sometimes the tried and true shows are just more fun to watch.  Some of our regular shows are just not as good anymore and I feel that now that my time is more precious, I'd rather not waste it on something that I'm just lukewarm to.

The one show I have made sure we've stayed current on is Shameless - it is a show that has yet to let me down in terms of entertainment quality.  I find that to be true of most of the shows from Showtime or HBO. It is definitely not a lighthearted show or one for the faint of heart though!  This season has gotten exceptionally dark. Thankfully Portlandia is back now too, so we always have that watch and decompress after we watch Shameless!

Sweater - Love 21, swap

Pants - Herbergers

Bag - Shiraleah via Zulily

Necklace - S&D

In other entertainment news in my world - there are about five movies coming out this month that I want to see and not enough time or babysitters to make that happen. Mostly it's time - we have very willing babysitters actually.  But anyway,  Muppets Most Wanted, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Divergent and the Veronica Mars movie are all out very soon or maybe are already out and I'm dying to see all of them.  Who knew March was such a big movie month?  Someday I'll get around to all of them!

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!

More minty freshness

Hmm, I'm sensing a theme here already this week - totally unintentional!  Second outfit with mint/teal tones in it though!  Honestly I just blame mommy brain on not realizing I am wearing similar things!  I don't know that I have enough of this color in my closet to go the entire week though, but then again, you never know!

I think I'm going to celebrate the fact that it's going to be not subzero and in fact up into the 20's to near 30 tomorrow by wearing a skirt.  Wild and crazy gal right here!

Sweater - Mossimo, Target via swap

Blouse - Decree, JCPenney

Pants - Old Navy

Boots - Merona, Target

Bag - Shiraleah via Zulily 

The weather people here are starting to make noises like the never ending winter may actually be subsiding a bit - and that we might actually have a normal spring - I don't know if I even remember what normal is anymore when it comes to the weather around here!  I'll just be happy to have it be nice enough that I don't have to pile 20 blankets on my child when we leave the house each day!

Comfort shopping

I made no secret of the fact that I had a hard time last month coming back to work and getting used to being away from my baby.  And I had the bug to go shopping, but just wasn't finding the time on the weekends.  I am a huge emotional shopper - it's something I do to make myself feel better and I know that it is a bad habit, but sometimes you just can't help yourself! I turned to the interwebs since I just couldn't get to the mall or even a thrift store. I bought a few things for Oliver from Old Navy online since he's growing like a weed and then I bought myself a couple of goodies from a Zulily sale.  You guessed it - one of them is a purse! Some women are shoe hoarders, but I'm a purse hoarder.  I can admit I have a problem, that's the first step right?

This bag is from a company called Shiraleah that is based in Chicago.  All of their products are made with vegan leather which I thought was pretty cool.  The Zulily deal was amazing - this bag was retailing for $100 or so new - I got it for $14.99.  I've been really liking satchel style bags lately, which is funny, I used to gravitate towards a hobo style bag more.  So anyway, I decided this was a treat for myself for surviving my first month back at work since it only just showed up on Friday - the only downside to Zulily, you have to wait awhile for the items to ship.

Sweater - Polo Ralph Lauren, thrifted

Tank top - Old Navy

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Boots - Target

Bag - Shiraleah via Zulily 

I also bought myself a few more nursing friendly items off of a Zulily deal and a teething necklace that I can wear when Oliver starts teething - it's safe for him to chew on.  He's already starting to grab and put things in his mouth so I may be wearing that sooner rather than later.  Maybe I don't need to join a Bag-o-holics support group, I think maybe I need to join a Zulily-o-holics support group!

Acai and 33

TGIF my friends!  We have made it through another week again!  I'm so excited today - my shower with my girlfriends is tonight.  I'm sure that will make the day drag a bit.  I love my families and those showers were fun and wonderful, but there is something about time with your closest friends you know?  I've been craving a night like this and I'm just so excited to hang out with my lady peeps!

Today's color for the Pantone color challenge is Acai - a nice shade of purple.  I wore the perfect outfit to my shower and Josh Groban concert last weekend and had every intention of using it for today but I never took the time to actually photograph it!  Blogger fail.  So, I chose to style my super comfy purple leggings for today instead.  The Pants Monkey said I looked cute this morning, so that's always a win.  And, I have had this shirt for a couple of months now but haven't shared it on the blog yet, so that's something too I suppose!

The button sweater is the gray one I was talking about earlier this week that I picked up at the swap.  And it may be my new favorite thing ever.  I don't know that I'll need to wear it all day, but it was below freezing this morning and the striped shirt is thin, so I needed the extra layer!  It's supposed to actually be pretty nice out later today though, so maybe I will be able to shed a layer!

 Sweater - swap

Striped shirt - Zulily

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Necklace - Stella and Dot with MMD buttonflower

Boots - Target

Bag - 31 Gifts

And of course, Friday is the day we count weeks and so we're at 33 weeks today, so there's my 33 week bump.  I'm trying to no longer panic over how much time is or isn't left.  We've made good progress at home and we still do have some time left.  And that's all that matters at the moment.  This weekend I'm treating Mr. Monkey and myself to a break, we're going to take some time for ourselves on Sunday, getting breakfast out somewhere and maybe just being lazy with movies all day.  We try to take a day and do that every Fall and I feel like we need a day like that before the baby comes.  We've been working hard on baby prep and house projects in addition to our regular jobs and our music group and it can get a little crazy sometimes.  So I'm quite excited for a "me and him" day!

And that brings us to the end of the Pantone Inspired Fall color challenge week!  I had a lot of fun!  I haven't decided what outfit this week was my favorite, but I loved all the colors, that is for sure!  Make sure you head to Heidi's blog to see other how other bloggers styled Acai today!

For the love of Orange

So due to technical difficulties with my lousy camera, this is the only picture I got of my outfit today.  Sad panda.  Oh well. I wanted to share it because I learned that today is "Wear orange for bully awareness" and while I didn't originally choose this outfit for that reason, it's definitely a cause I can get on board with.

Shirt - Zulily

Dress as skirt - Merona, Target

Necklace - S&D

Shoes - Xhilaration, from Lori

I'm actually reading a fascinating YA book right now about the topic of bullying - it's called Eleanor and Park and it's very good and thought provoking.  I became interested in it when I learned that a school district in our county chose it as the summer read for teens,  but then parents got a hold of it and demanded it be banned because of language used in the book. The controversy went so far that a talk to be held with the author at one of our county libraries was actually cancelled.  I think it's a shame - it's a very good book so far even though I am only about halfway through it.  I think it's an important read and yes, there is some tough language, but it fits with the tone of the book.  I'll have more thoughts on this when I finish it I think.

And the other thing about orange?  I am still crazy in love with Orange is the New Black and we only have a few episodes left.  I am going to be in withdrawal when we finish that show!!  Have any of you watched it?

Good deals

So I recently discovered the awesomeness - or maybe the dangerousness - of the website Zulily.com.  I had heard of it once before I was ever pregnant and actually was getting the emails for awhile, because they have good deals for everyone, not just moms.  But then I thought, ok, I'm not using this, I'm going to unsubscribe. I ended up re-subscribing after getting pregnant and a few weeks ago, decided to make an order.  They had some nursing bras on sale and then I couldn't help but order this super cute shirt too.  The total cost wasn't bad at all and way under regular retail.

The only downside is, you have to wait until the "deal" is over before they'll process your order and ship your items.  So, I think I waited three weeks to get this stuff - but it was worth it.  I adore this shirt.  It's so soft and super comfy.  And of course - it has orange and we all know how much I love orange!

 Shirt - Zulily.com

Skirt - Old Navy

Necklace and bracelets - S&D

Sandals - Merona, Target

Apparently I'm practicing my flamingo pose in the above picture!  I assure you my leg was not amputated!  I think my leg was actually on the stair behind me.  Oops!

There are honestly so many other items I've seen in my daily Zulily emails that I've had to just pass up or I'd go broke.  There are good deals to be had, but you can't buy everything!  Have any of you ever ordered anything from Zulily?